Black Simmental bull to $14,500 but Angus harder to sell

A niche carved out by a Tallangatta Valley stud has seen higher demand for Black Simmental and Black Simmental-Angus at a recent sale.

A surge in demand for Black Simmental genetics has spurred on a fellow breeder to pay $14,500 at the Brewer Beef sale near Tallangatta Valley.

The Hazel Dell Black Simmental stud, operated by Scott and Aminah Andersen from Ryanston, is seeing greater demand for Black Simmental bulls than traditional (red) Simmental bulls.

As such, they are trying to breed more and wanted to injected some length into their breeding, hence the purchase at Brewer Beef.

Scott and Aminah Andersen from Hazel Dell Simmentals at Ryanston, paid $14,500 for a Black Simmental bull at the Brewer Beef sale at Tallangatta Valley. It was the top price for the sale.

Mr Andersen said the Simmental stud had been running since 1988, but recently sales of the black portion had been outselling the red portion.

“We sell about 20 Black Simmental bulls each year compared to maybe four (traditional red) Simmentals,” Mr Andersen said.

“We came up to buy a black bull and he stood out immediately.”

The bull, BB Cowboy Cut T312, a June 2022-drop sire, will go straight out with cows when transported back to their stud, and will be naturally joined, and Mr Andersen said it was likely they would also collect semen from the bull.

But it was a highlight in a tough enough day for the Brewer family at auction, with just five of the 18 pure Angus bulls selling at auction, though many sold immediately after.

There was strong demand for pure Black Simmentals and various mixes of Black Simmental and Angus.

The next best price at the sale was $11,000, paid twice by two different buyers for bulls that were 62 per cent Simmental and 38 per cent Angus, and 78 per cent Simmental and 22 per cent Angus.

Henry Brewer, Brewer Beef, Tallangatta Valley, with lot 33, a Sim-Angus bull which made $9500.

Brewer Angus principal Tara Brewer said buyers were very selective, and happy to pay for their chosen sires but overlooking others.

“Buyers were chasing certain types of bulls, regardless of what mix of Black Simmental and Angus they were,” Ms Brewer said.

“We tell our clients that they should choose the bulls they like, regardless of that mix.

“But we did notice that they were chasing bulls with high marbling scores and low birthweights.”

Ms Brewer said their Koetong Angus stud was only just new, and they hoped to keep improving and growing their client base.

“Next year we will have calves of our own breeding on the ground so we are looking forward to that,” she said.

The overall results were five of 18 Angus bulls sold to $6500 and averaged $5300; seven of nine pure Black Simmental bulls sold to $14,500 and averaged $7714 while 15 of 18 Black Simmental-Angus cross sold to $11,000 twice and averaged $6833.