A WA-bred bull has played a major role in setting the highest ever price paid for a beef female in Australia.
Coonamble Hector H249, bred by the Davis family, Coonamble Angus stud, Bremer Bay, was the sire of Millah Murrah Prue M4, a 21-month-old heifer that sold for $190,000 at the Millah Murrah stud female sale in Bathurst, New South Wales, recently
Coonamble stud co-principal Craig Davis said he was pleasantly surprised when he found out that a bull bred at Coonamble had sired an Australian record priced animal.
Mr Davis, who took over the running of the Coonamble stud from his parents Murray and Sheryle this year, said it was good reward for the effort his father had put into Angus breeding for more than 50 years.
“It is a credit to Dad and the breeding philosophies that he has followed for many years now,” Mr Davis said.
“It is also good for the WA Angus industry to be a part of a record price set in the Eastern States and hopefully it will help raise the profile of the quality of WA Angus across Australia.”
Mr Davis also commended Millah Murrah principal Ross Thompson for taking the time to travel to WA to inspect Hector first-hand.
“He travelled to WA two years ago and drove 10 hours return to inspect the bull and from that inspection he immediately ordered semen from Hector and used it straight away within his herd,” he said.
Hector H249 has some impeccable genetics, being a son of Bennett Performer and out of Coonamble E9.
Coonamble E9 is a daughter of well-known Coonamble sire Z3 and out of Bangadang A61.
In turn, Z3 was the sire of Coonamble Elevator E11, a bull that has been used extensively in Angus herds across Australia.
Mr Davis said it was pleasing for the Coonamble stud to see their genetics working in Angus herds across the country.
“Hector was bred to breed females,” he said.
“Bennett Performer is a cow breeding bull and we put him to E9 to produce bulls that we could put over Elevator daughters.
“E9 has a great temperament and is a large-framed cow, while Bennett Performer is a more moderate-framed sire, so they make a very good combination.
“Hector himself is a moderate-framed bull that has very good early growth.
“He stands square and is good on his feet.”
Hector has also bred some very good sons for the Millah Murrah stud.
At its annual bull sale in September the stud sold nine sons of Hector at an average of $18,677, including a top price of $40,000.
There were also 25 Hector sons sold at the Coonamble Angus on-property sale in February this year, which averaged $9760.
Mr Davis said Hector had now been used in 28 stud herds across Australia.
In the sale catalogue the heifer was described as the best animal the Millah Murrah stud had ever bred and a magnificent specimen from all angles.
The maternal strength of the heifer’s pedigree was also described in the catalogue to be – superb, exotic and an outcross.
Not only does the heifer have Hector in its bloodlines, it is out of Millah Murrah Prue F141 which carries bloodlines of Innesdale Carbine C31, Millah Murrah Woody W100 and Hingaia 100 that are all proven female lines over many years.
After some very intense bidding the outstanding female, was purchased by Rodger and Jenny Pryce, Brooklana Angus, Brooklana, New South Wales.
Mr Pryce said he liked that the heifer fitted into their breeding program as it didn’t have any genetic influence from Emperor or Reality.
“We have quite a lot of that in our stud already,” Mr Pryce said.
“Structurally she ticks all the boxes for us.
“I have been following what Millah Murrah has been doing since I got back into cattle in 2009.”
Mr Pryce runs a small stud of 100 breeders and is thinking of downsizing to a smaller herd of 20 to 30 cows as they believe it is better to have high quality rather than more.
But it wasn’t only Prue M4 which made an impact in the sale – all up 234 females were offered and all sold for an average of $13,709.
In the sale six females made $40,000 or more, four females made between $30,000 to $40,000 and 21 females made from $20,000 to $30,000.
Millah Murrah stud co-principal, Ross Thompson was overwhelmed with the sale.
“We feel the sale reflects the strong demand for our bulls over the past seven years and 50 years of dedication to maternal function,” Mr Thompson said.
“We thought the females on offer were simply as good as we could ever hope to produce.
“From an industry perspective, the sale underlined the seemingly endless horizon in demand for quality Angus cattle.”
The second top price in the sale was $54,000 for Millah Murrah Prue H112, a PTIC daughter by Ythanbrae Henry VIII U8, when it was knocked down to East West Angus stud, Upper Bingara, NSW, under-bidders on the top-priced heifer.
There were several WA buying connections in the sale.
Cherylton Angus, Donnybrook, purchased seven females to a top price of $16,000 and an average of $10,857, along with another three in conjunction with Heart Angus, Tamworth, NSW, which was the volume purchaser in the sale securing 11 females to a top of $26,000 and an average of $12,363.
The Kupsch family, Black Tara, Allanooka, also paid $26,000 for a young PTIC cow and the Della Gola family, Tone Bridge Grazing, Tone Bridge, purchased a Millah Murrah cow at the sale.
