THE economy may be experiencing a bear market, but the countryside is definitely looking bullish.
Weeton's, the award-winning Harrogate Farm Shop, was today toasting a revival in the fortunes of UK farming after its Weeton herd of pedigree Holstein dairy cows, from which the shop takes its name, achieved record breaking prices at auction.
The top priced animal, Weeton Oralie Talent, was sold to for 38,000 guineas (£39,900), believed to be a UK record for a dairy cow in recent years.
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More than 170 head of cattle went under the hammer at Preese Hall, near Preston, and averaged more than £4,500.
Weetons say that the record auction prices point to a brighter future for dairy farming and the wider farming community, which has suffered terrible fortune for two decades.
Andrew Loftus, managing director of Weeton's, whose family still owns 200 breeding stock of the Weeton herd and originally brought Holstein cattle to Britain in the late 1960s, said he was delighted.
He said: "It means that after 15 terrible years, where more than half of our dairy farms have closed down, those left can begin to invest in the countryside again as the higher milk prices begin to feed through to stock prices and overall profitability."
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