A QUALITY offering of more than 500 of the Great Southern’s top breeding females will be on offer at the Elders Annual Great Southern Breeder Sale on Monday, December 18.
The yarding will include more than 230 PTIC heifers, 224 PTIC cows and 37 cows with calves at foot (all numbers subject to final selection).
Elders Albany and Mt Barker representative and sale co-ordinator Jai Newman said he was extremely happy with the yarding of cattle on offer in the sale and that they were all well-bred cattle from renowned cattle operators.
“The cattle put forward in this sale are all good lines of females which have been bred from and mated to quality bulls from renowned studs,” Mr Newman said.
“Buyers can buy with confidence knowing that what they bid on is in optimum health and is set up in the best possible way to calve down.”
Many of the females due to calve have been pregnancy tested by vendors already, but all sale cattle will be tested again the week prior to the sale under the sale requirements, meaning buyers can purchase with the utmost confidence.
Include in the line-up will be a quality offering of Angus breeders from regular vendor, RA Bentink, Denmark.
Rick Bentink will offer 20 Angus second calvers with calves at foot.
The calves on these cows were dropped about November 1 and the cows have not been remated.
Mr Bentick said they were top calves and the cows were in good condition thanks to good pastures.
“The bulls used over these cows come from the Lawsons Regent bloodlines,” he said.
“These bulls were chosen for their high indexes, including high growth and low birthweight.”
Also on offer from the Bentinks will be 25 Angus second calvers, 25 third calvers and 25 fourth calvers.
These will be PTIC and will start calving from February 20, according to Mr Bentink.
“These females were mated to bulls that go back to Lawsons Bartel blood,” he said.
“Bartel is a well-known sire and we went with this line to capitalise on good intramuscular fat figures, high eye muscle area and high growth.”
Mr Bentink said easy calving was also a focus in his breeding policy and he hadn’t had to help any cows calve on the place.
All females on offer from the Bentinks were given a copper, cobalt and selenium supplement in August and all have had an Ivomec drench and their annual 7in1 treatment.
Another regular vendor in the sale, Vicki Smith, Dajara Farm, Narrikup, will again offer up a line of Angus mated heifers.
The line will total 45 2016 drop heifers that have been mated to low birthweight bulls purchased from the Diamond Tree Angus stud, Manjimup.
As she does each year, Ms Smith has purchased the heifers from various well-known local breeders, who are renowned for producing quality cattle. They are then grown out on Ms Smith’s Narrikup property.
These heifers are due to start calving on February 19 and should calve over an eight week period.
Bulls used over the heifers include Diamond Tree Front Runner J145, Diamond Tree Forward J126 and Diamond Tree Evident L269.
Health treatment-wise, the heifers were given a Pestigard vaccination and Ultravac vaccination in March, as well as a Vitamin B12 and long acting Selovin (selenium) injection.
They were given their Pestigard and Ultravac boosters in May and another Vitamin B12 shot in November along with a Multimin injection.
In December 2017 they were drenched with a Dectomax Pour On.
The heifers will come pregnancy tested by the Mt Barker Veterinary Hospital.
Also offering a line of PTIC Angus heifers will be Green Valley Farms, Albany.
This line will consist of 24 heifers, which are due to start calving on February 23 and should finish on May 4.
These heifers have been bred on Ponderosa Angus bloodlines, with low birthweight bulls used over them containing GAR Prophet and New Generation bloodlines.
These heifers have been ear notched and tested negative for BVDV.
MA & PK Wood, Green Range, will offer up 25 Angus PTIC heifers in the sale.
Also a regular vendor, the Wood family’s heifers are due to start calving on February 14 through to April 16.
Bulls used to mate the heifers this year include two Matauri Reality 839-sired bulls bought from Koojan Hills Angus stud, one Ardcairnie bull and a Coonamble Hector son, whose grand-dam is Bangadang Lowan A16, a cow that has been used extensively in the Coonamble stud herd and is the dam of a number of other reference sires.
The Koojan Hills bulls have EBVs of +2.8 birthweight and +72 400-day weight and +92 600-day weight and +2.4 birthweight and +77 400-day weight and +92 600-day weight respectively.
The Ardcairnie bull used was +3 for birthweight, +78 for 400-day weight and +98 for 600-day weight, while the Coonamble bull was +2.8 for birthweight, +75 for 400-day weight and +100 for 600-day weight.
Other vendors to offer PTIC heifers in the sale include NHA & RL Stoney, Redmond, who will offer 12 Angus heifers joined to Quanden Angus bulls. These heifers are due to calve from January 27 to April 10.
A large line of 50 Angus PTIC heifers will be offered by D & M Bunn. These heifers are Lawsons Angus blood and are joined to low birthweight Angus bulls and due to calve from March 10 to May 30.
Regular vendor, CJ Anderson will offer a line of 15 Murray Grey heifers that are PTIC. These are joined to Melaleuca Murray Grey bulls and are due to calve from February 7 to April 4.
The Andersons will also offer a line of 30 second calver Murray Grey cows that are PTIC and joined to Melaleuca Murray Grey bulls. These are also due to calve from February 7 to April 4.
Another regular vendor, Ross Young, Hillcrest Farms, Albany, will have an offering of 28 Angus PTIC cows that range from fourth to sixth calvers.
These cows have been joined to Lawsons and Ardcairnie Angus bulls and are due to calve from March 4 to May 18.
A large line of 30 PTIC Murray Grey cows, that are fifth to sixth calvers, will be offered by Merinvale Grazing.
These cows have been joined to Tullibardine Murray Grey bulls and are due to calve from March 25 to May 25.
Also offering PTIC Murray Grey cows will be G & LJ Smith, Youngs Siding, who will have 21 on offer at the sale.
Of these, six will be rising second calvers that are PTIC and joined to Limousin bulls, while the remainder will be fifth calvers, also PTIC and mated to Limousin bulls.
All the Smiths cows are due to calve from March 1 to May 30.