Mixed results for first week of bull sales

The dip in beef returns has flowed through to bull sales but there’s been some surprises in the first week. See our list of results.

Southern Australia’s bull selling season has produced mixed results in the first week, yet top sires have still attracted big price tags.

In figures collated by The Weekly Times of initial sales, there has been an overall clearance of 90 per cent, yet some sales have had total clearances and others far from it.

Clearances rates were as low as 40 per cent for some sales, but of the fixtures monitored, four had total clearances, and another three saw more than 90 per cent of bulls sold.

Only a third of the 12 sales analysed posted averages higher than last year, while the remaining studs posted results ranging from 56-95 per cent of last year’s figures.

The best average to date was achieved by Yarram Park, Willaura, on Monday when 50 of its 54 Hereford bulls offered averaged $15,820, back from the $18,788 it reached last year.

Two bulls sold for $32,000, including one to the Newcomen Hereford stud at Ensay.

Another whiteface stud – Glentrevor Herefords at Finley, NSW, also had a great result when a bull topped at $30,000, and its average lifted almost 20 per cent to $10,916.

The top price bull, the homozygous polled Glentrevor Promise S356 had Breedplan figures of +2.2 for birthweight, +25 for milk, +72 for carcase weight, +7.1 for eye muscle area, and +1.9 for intramuscular fat.

This was tempered, though, by the clearance with only 12 of the 30 bulls offered selling.

Elders Finley agent Greg McNamara said the top-price Glentrevor bull had been selected for the breed’s Super Sires program and went to a commercial producer from Yea.

“I think it was just one of those years that the clients needed one bull, not three or four,” Mr McNamara said.

“Glentrevor has a small but loyal following, yet they just didn’t buy as many.”

Action at last week’s Mount William Charolais sale at Willaura.

Woonallee Simmentals at Millicent, South Australia, took the honours for the highest price for the week and backed it up with a sellout of all sires.

Woonallee sold 113 bulls to full clearance, topping at $60,000 to average $15,009 – a lift on last year’s average of $14,312 for 112.

The 21-month-old top-price bull sold for $60,000 to a buying partnership from Gold Creek Simmentals in New Zealand and the AgriGene semen company.

“We weren’t expecting that result,” Woonallee stud principal Tom Baker said.

“The cattle industry is obviously slightly down on where it was last year.

“But our clients have obviously made money during the year, even if it has tightened a bit in the last few months.

“We probably were expecting a $1500 to $2000 averaged price reduction, so I think we were really lucky to have the support of our local clients and the increase in the Black Simmental popularity.”

“The breed has taken some time to evolve, but there’s certainly some momentum now, especially with the hybrid vigour of the Angus cross.

“There was a good spread on those bulls,” Mr Baker said of the buying competition, which spanned from locally across into Victoria, New South Wales and into Queensland.