Australia’s top bulls: The record breakers, the breeds and the prices

A recent high of $360,000 caps off a stellar run for bull prices across Australia. Read which studs and breeds made the list.

The stellar run of Australia’s beef industry has seen incredible highs paid for bulls as stud breeders fight to secure the nation’s best genetics.

The mantle for Australia’s top bull price has just been set and Angus sits at the top – for now.

Yet it is Northern Australia’s Bos Indicus that feature large in our list highlighting some of the biggest outlays for genetics.

These are the headline-grabbing sires of the beef industry

$360,000
Texas Thunderstruck, Texas Angus, Warialda NSW (2023)

Texas Angus Thunderstruck T383 was sold to Robert Mackenzie of Macka's Australian Beef Angus for a record $360,000. Picture: Supplied

An Australian record was set in July when a 12-month-old Angus bull has sold for $360,000 in an incredible result that stunned the beef world. Texas Angus stud at Warialda, NSW, sold Texas Thunderstruck T383 for the eye-watering sum to fellow Angus breeders Macka's Angus at Salt Ash NSW. Vendor Ben Mayne said he believed Thunderstruck was “very special” even before he took the honours as Australia’s most expensive bull. “We believe he will take the Angus breed to the next level,” Mr Mayne said. Texas Angus had exclusive semen rights to Poss Rawhide for the past two years and Thunderstruck was the first and only Rawhide son to be sold in the southern hemisphere this year.

Thunderstuck has Breedplan figures of +2.7 for birth weight and is in the top 4 per cent of the breed its age group for calving ease and top 4 per cent for eye muscle area with a figure of 12.7.

$325,000
NCC Justified, Nobbs Cattle Company, Duaringa, Queensland (2017)

Nobbs Cattle Co annual Brahman sale was held on property in Duaringa, Queensland, and NCC Justified sold for a record$325,000.

NCC Justified held the record for Australia’s dearest bull for almost six years, giving the mantle to Northern Australia’s favourite breed, Brahmans. Justified was the most expensive in Australian history at the time in 2017, selling for $325,000. The grey bull, which was two years old at the time, sold to fellow Brahman breeders Rodger and Lorena Jefferis, from Elrose stud at Cloncurry, Queensland.

$300,000
Lancefield Burton Manso 3253 (H) Dululu, Queensland (2006)

It was a surprise to even the owners when their Brahman bull Lancefield Burton Manso 3253 made the stellar sum of $300,000 at Gracemere saleyards. Even now, 17 years later, Lancefield principal Lizzie McCamley still thinks the result was amazing. “We knew we had a good bull but we thought he would make about a third of what he did,” Mrs McCamley said. “At the time, even getting over $40,000 for a bull was big news so this was a real shock.” She said it was the bull’s conformation, combined with his genetics that attracted attention, with the bull selling to the Happy Valley Brahman stud at Mackay, Queensland. There would still be progeny that carry this bull’s genetics, Mrs McCamley said, and they retained a full brother of the bull that they used at Lancefield. To put this feat into perspective, in today’s terms, that price is equivalent to $450,000.

$280,000
Millah Murrah Rocket Man R38, Bathurst NSW (2021)

Millah Murrah Rocket Man R38, which sold for $280,000.

The Angus breed shot into the stratosphere in 2021 when Millah Murrah Rocket Man R38 sold for $280,000. The bull set a record Angus price at the time after a bidding duel between a number of players before he sold to Brooklana Angus. Rocket Man is sired by Millah Murrah Paratrooper P15. Paratrooper set its own breed record in 2019 of $160,000. In 2021, Rocket Man R38 helped Millah Murrah to achieve a world record bull average at the time of $34,221 for 118 bulls.

$265,000
Moongool Revolution, Yuleba, Queensland (2022)

Riding the crest of stellar beef prices, a Queensland-based Charolais stud put the breed on the map by producing a big result last year. The stud was founded in 1985 and now has a registered herd of 1200 females, which produced its breed-topping sire. Moongool Revolution was described in the sale catalogue as a big upstanding polled son of the full French bull Parfaint. The catalogue said the bull exhibited “great structural soundness throughout, he carries a very thick soft body type, with extra length of body and so much sire appeal”.

$250,000
Yarrawonga S316, Wallumbilla, Queensland (2022)

Yarrawonga S316, which sold for $250,000.

Yarrawonga is an institution in the Santa Gertrudis breed, holding its first sale in 1959. And last year, the stud set an Australian breed record of $250,000 for Yarrawonga S316. It had previously held a national breed record of $150,000 paid for Yarrawonga Kakadu in 1989. Yarrawonga Santa Gertrudis was founded by the late David and Mary Bassingthwaighte, who introduced Brahmans over Shorthorn females.

$240,000
Sahara Park Yasufuku, Garnant, Queensland (2022)

Sahara Park Yasufuku R153.

In a sign of the world’s enthusiasm for Wagyu beef, the relative newcomer to the Australian industry holds one the nation’s top sire prices. Sahara Park Yasufuku R153, a 16-month-old bull sold by Dean and Sam Pollard was bought by Que Hornery from Bar H Grazing. After he bought the bull in May last year, Mr Hornery said it would “be the star in taking our business to another level”. Yasufuku R153 was sired by World K Yasufuku JR, an imported sire known for its marbling.

$240,000
Millah Murrah Rembrandt R48, Bathurst NSW (2021)

Millah Murrah Rembrandt R48, which sold for $240,000. Picture: Stud Stock Sales

If there was ever a bull that could feel miffed, then Millah Murrah Rembrandt R48 was that bull. Selling for $240,000 was no mean feat but the price was overshadowed by another Millah Murrah bull, Rembrandt’s half brother Rocket Man R38 which made $280,000 just five minutes before at the same auction. At the time, it meant that Millah Murrah held the top two Angus bull prices in the nation. The owners described Rembrandt as “a work of art from any angle”.

$240,000

Landfall Angus Pheasantry S1755, Dilston, Tasmania (2023)

Landfall Angus Stud in Tasmania sold this bull for $240,000 at the 2023 on-property sale. Picture: Supplied

The most southern stud to feature in the list is Landfall Angus from Tasmania. Earlier this year, the stud operated by the Archer family sold a 2021-drop bull sired by Te Mania Pheasantry P1479, for $240,000. The bull had a birth weight of 1.8 and 600-day-weight of 118kg and an eye muscle area of +12.4, which is almost double the breed average. The bull sold to fellow Angus breeders, the Harbison family from Dunoon Angus at Holbrook, NSW.

$230,000
Glenlands J Dampier, Bouldercombe, Queensland (2022)

A new Droughtmaster record of $230,000 was paid for Glenlands J Dampier and while it was an amazing achievement in itself for the stud, it did not end there. Glenlands sold four bulls for more than $200,000 last year at its auction – the three others made $220,000, $210,000 and $200,000 – and then two more bulls made $180,000 and $110,000. The remainder of the bulls sold from $8000 to $80,000 with the 197 bulls grossing close to $5 million.

$225,000
Texas Iceman L725, Warialda NSW (2021)

Texas Iceman R725.

Texas Angus might hold the nation’s top bull price but the stud already had form before its latest price set the beef world alight. The Mayne family sold Texas Iceman in 2021 for $225,000. The buyer was Macka’s Angus. Bred from one of the stud’s leading cows, the bull’s dam, Texas Undine H647, had at the time produced 18 sons, which had averaged $37,100 for the stud.

$160,000
Injemira Redford J006, Book Book NSW (2021)

Injemira Redford J006 Q287 sold for $160,000.

An Australian whiteface record of $160,000 was paid for a Poll Hereford bull at the Injemira sale at Book Book in 2021. It was a stellar day for the stud where breeders from three states spent more than $1 million in less than two hours sourcing genetics for their herds.

A group of three buyers — Ardno Herefords from Mt Gambier, Vielun Pastoral Company from Mudgee NSW and artificial insemination company ABS Australia — spent the top price of $160,000 on a sire whose genetics are set to go around the world. Injemira Redford Q287 was 17 months at the time and was one of just six sires Australia wide to be nominated for the Hereford Super Sires program for 2021.

$160,000
Millah Murrah Sugar Ray S76 (2022)

Another sire from the Millah Murrah battery to make the list of most expensive bulls is Sugar Ray S76. The bull’s scanned figures leading up to its auction put it at the top of the offering of 84 sires for eye muscle area and intramuscular fat. It shows the consistency of demand for the Millah Murrah stud and its ability to turn out six-figure bulls consistently.

$160,000
Woonallee Los Angeles, Furner, South Australia (2017)

Woonallee Los Angeles which sold for $160,000.

Woonallee didn’t just break the record price for a Simmental bull sold in Australia, they more than tripled their own previous record, selling a bull for $160,000. Tom and Lizzy Baker of Woonallee Simmentals at Furner in South Australia broke their previous high of $46,000, which they set with Woonallee Gold Rush G061 in 2013. This time around the record breaker was Woonallee Los Angeles, an 18-month-old polled traditional Simmental sire, by Glen Anthony Y-Arta AY02 and out of Woonallee Kathie B111, and weighing 1030kg. It sold to Brett Nobbs of Nobbs Cattle Company at Duaringa, Queensland, who now also holds one of Australia’s best bull prices.