Hereford national bull and sale: Champion bull goes for $130k

UPDATED: A bull sold by a well-known stud has made six figures at the Hereford National Show and Sale. See our video of the auction and who bought it.

A $130,000 top price and an almost $2000 lift in averages were standout results at today’s Herefords Australia National Show and Sale at Wodonga.

In the offering of 106 bulls, 97 sold at auction for an average of $16,278. This compares to last year, where 84 bulls averaged $14,639.

Logan Sykes from Mawarra Genetics at Longford and the $130,000 bull.

And it was the Mawarra Genetics team which grabbed the attention, with 10 bulls averaging $38,700 and selling to $130,000.

A partnership between Queensland’s Devon Court stud at Drillham, and the Robbie family from Otapawa Poll Herefords in New Zealand spent the top money on Mawarra Ultra Star R182, bred from US sire Endure 173D.

Ultra Star R182, which was judged the grand champion at the show the previous day, had figures of +123kg for 600-day growth, compared to the breed average of +78kg, +8.6 for eye muscle area (breed average +3.8) and 2.3 per cent for intramuscular fat (breed average 0.6 per cent).

Tom and Indi Baulch from Jaclinton stud at Illlowa offered three bulls.

Devon Court principal Tom Nixon bought the full brother of the top price bull at Mawarra’s on property sale about a month ago before spending up today, and said his father had always been a fan of reinforcing genetics.

While Otapawa will hold semen marketing rights in New Zealand, Mr Nixon said there would be no semen sold in Australia from the bull with the only chance to buy genetics from the bull through its calves.

The remainder of the Mawarra bulls sold from $16,000 to $60,000 in a stellar outing for the stud operation.

A prospective buyer checks their phone.

Mawarra principal Peter Sykes said the national sale offered a showcase for their bulls and opened up their genetics to a wider market.

Of the offering of 106 bulls, nine were passed in and 16 were knocked down at auction at the upset price of just $6000.

At the other end of the scale, 24 bulls made more than $20,000, and of those, eight made $30,000 or more.

The second highest price was $70,000, paid by Marc Greening from Injemira Genetics at Book Book, NSW, for Yarrandabbie Richard R004, a two-year-old bull sired by Glendan Park Panama P004, and which had figures of +90kg for 600-day growth and +5.9 for eye muscle area.

The 59 junior bulls sold to $35,000 and averaged $12,848 while the 42 senior bulls sold to $130,000 and averaged $20,119.

The sale grossed $1.6 million, up 56 per cent on last year’s result.

The $130k bull was judged grand champion of the show.