Carlisle bulls top at £15,000

Harrison and Hetherington auctioneers, who run the Carlisle auction centre, have also moved most of their actions online.

One of their biggest sales of the year, the British Limousin cattle society premier May sale, was the first to trial their online timed auction system.

A few notable prices were hit, with average price falling just shy of £5,500. However, it must again be noted that this was for 34 bulls sold out of the 100 odd animals on offer.

As mentioned, there were a few notable prices, the highest of which was a bid of £15,000 for Maraiscote Phil.

This February 2019-born bull was bred by Ian Nimmo and secured by the well-known Procters farm. Sired by Millgate Fame son Bassingfield Machoman, he is out of the homebred Mariascote Firtree, herself a Goldies Comet daughter. This was the second of the Nimmo’s lots to hit the five figure mark, with Maraiscote Prince selling for £10,400. This young bull was bred the same way as the sale topper, being out of Machoman and a Comet-bred dam.

Next in line was the Haltcliffe herd, who sold their top entry, Haltcliffe Paul, for £13,400. This son of Ampertaine Elgin is out of one of the herds most muscular cows, Haltcliffe Donna, whose breeding includes the 100,000gns Haltcliffe Vermount and well-known Cloughead Romany. Securing Paul was Strophire-based Messrs Wood & Sons.

A second bull hit the price tag of £10,400, and this was Northern Ireland bull Deerpark Pluto.

Bred by Conor and Ryan Mulholland from Aghalee in Co Armagh, Pluto stood as senior champion at the 2020 rising stars show. Sired by Plumtree Fantastic, he is out of an Ampertaine Elgin-bred dam.

One female lot stood out and that was Bruce Goldies’ Goldies Omaria, who sold for £10,600.

This September 2018-born heifer is by stock sire Wilodge LJ, with Cloughead Umpire and Goldies Vitality on the dam’s side. Overall, 28 heifers sold to average £3,125.