A BLUBBERHOUSES farmer is celebrating success at a local auction.

North of England Mule Sheep Association Chair Kevin Wilson was crowned champion in the flagship pen of 10s show class at Skipton Auction Mart’s opening 2018 gimmer lamb highlight on Tuesday, September 11.

While Mr Wilson - who farms with his wife Daphne and their son, James at Hewness House Farm - won both the pens of 10s and 20s show classes at Skipton’s second Mule ewe lamb sale last year, this was the first time the family had clinched the prestigious title at the opening sale.

Mr Wilson, who began his two-year term of office as NEMSA chairman in February, said: “We are over the moon. It is a career highlight.”

Six in the victorious Skipton pen were by the Wilsons’ high performance F1 Bighead tup, shared in partnership with his Richmondshire breeder Alan Busby, of Marrick, the remainder by Bighead’s home-bred sons.

They sold for the day’s top price of £270 per head to the Haynes family in Winslow, Buckinghamshire.