Sheepdog sells for record price at Skipton

A Bowes farmer secured the highest price at Skipton Auction Mart’s field sale of working sheep dogs.

Robert Hutchinson, of Valley Farm, secured 8,400 guineas (£8,820) for his three-year-old black and white bitch Jet, ahead of a field of 35 other dogs.

Jet, by Robert’s own Hendre Taff, is fast developing into a top stud dog, out of County Durham handler Frank Whitfield’s Heyshaw Molly, and had a very successful nursery season, winning several trials and being placed on most occasions.

Robert, who runs a prize-winning 800-strong pedigree Swaledale sheep flock and also farms 35 Limousin-X and British Blue-X suckler cattle, was only selling dogs at Skipton for the third time, with Jet going to an undisclosed phone bidder north of the border.