IRA celebrates 25 years with 1500 head

The milestone sale will be held on Monday, December 5, commencing at 1.30pm (WST) on AuctionsPlus and feature 1500 head of quality young weaner and vealer cattle, specially selected unmated and PTIC breeding heifers and a selection of trade cattle.

IRA principal and level one professional assessor Colin Thexton and his family has grown the feature sale to be among WA's largest and respected fixtures to source vealer and weaner cattle and young breeding heifers presented by regular sale vendors.

AuctionsPlus market operator and educator Anna Adams said the company congratulated Colin and Kerry Thexton on their 25th IRA Elite vealer and weaner sale.

Ms Adams said Colin had truly taken AuctionsPlus on board as his saleyard - pioneering the concept and developing the market in WA.

She said through the past 25 years of selling via CALM and then AuctionsPlus, Colin's clients had reaped the benefits of getting auction competition on their cattle from their farm gate, and had been able to promote their cattle beyond the reach of local markets, with buyers from Queensland, Victoria and South Australia sourcing cattle in the past 12 months.

"Colin is well-respected by buyers, and his reputation for assessing and delivering cattle to the highest standard ensures consistent competition from buyers, both local and further afield," Ms Adams said.

"Colin's strong relationship with his clients allows him to provide sound market advice, and rarely does he not get a result in weekly auctions with most sales achieving full clearance rates."

Ms Adams said in addition to the large offering in the annual sale, Colin utilises AuctionsPlus on a weekly basis, and on several occasions has been awarded the Top Assessor and Top Agency honours - an outstanding achievement for an agency with a single assessor.

"Last year his average lot size was 23 head, with 6470 cattle sold to processors, feedlots and exporters, as well as backgrounding and breeding operations," she said.

"In an environment with these small lot sizes, Colin's ability to line up cattle of similar types and offer convenient delivery terms ensures the best result for his clients.

"We are looking forward to this year's quality lineup of cattle and taking the opportunity to catch up with Colin and Kerry and their clients in Pemberton at this year's 25th anniversary sale."

While buyers can view the sale from the comfort of their home or office, Colin and Kerry and family extend a warm invitation to join them at the Pemberton Sports Club and later at their residence for dinner and refreshments to continue the 25th anniversary celebrations.

Together with his clients, Mr Thexton will offer another catalogue of young cattle that reflect the quality, breeding and condition the sale has built its reputation on.

The cattle will descend from properties in Pemberton, Northcliffe, Manjimup, Quinninup, Balingup, Mayanup, Winnejup and Chowerup.

For the eighth consecutive year, the entire sale catalogue of cattle will be free of hormone growth promotants (HGP) and for the fourth year running, Mr Thexton has ensured cattle at weights suited to lotfeeders have been weaned on-farm and vaccinated with Bovi-Shield MH One at least two weeks prior to the sale.

All cattle are either polled or dehorned with a majority of the cattle receiving the full health treatment including cobalt and selenium, drenched in the last six weeks and vaccinated twice with 7in1.

The catalogue will be drafted in specific weight ranges to ideally suit lotfeeders and grass fatteners and a number of this season's first draft vealers to suit the trade.

Any unweaned lines will be clearly identified to prospective buyers.

There will also be numerous specially-selected lines of unmated young heifers recommended for future breeding and a feature consignment of PTIC maiden two-year-old Angus heifers.

A big advantage of selling or purchasing cattle on the AuctionsPlus system is buyers know the cattle have been individually weighed and assessed and immediately returned to their mother or paddock with no stress factor.

When the cattle are sold, they are picked up on-farm and taken straight to farm, feedlot or abattoir, minimising the handling and stress on the animal.

Colin said he was proud of the sale's achievements and thanked everyone who has supported him over the journey.

"25 years ago in December 1991, IRA held its first elite vealer sale on the CALM system in a time when mobile phones were as scarce as Tasmanian Tigers and the internet was as reliable as a pollie's promise," he said.

"We persevered and week in week out my then business partner Peter Milton and myself continued to promote the benefits of the CALM system as we strongly believed in this marketing system.

"I have observed many positive changes in the cattle industry in Western Australia and look forward to what the future has to offer.

"I would like to acknowledge three original sale vendors that have given me full support for the whole 25 years in G & B Bendotti, D Bendotti & Sons, CW Kemp & Co, Pemberton.

"Congratulations to all my vendors, old and new, on this year's and previous year's sales and I would also like to acknowledge the continued support I receive from grazier, lotfeeder, processor and exporter buyers."

Original sale vendor G & B Bendotti, Pemberton, will offer one of the largest individual drafts at the sale with 200 January to February drop Angus steer and heifer vealers and weaners.

The calves are the progeny of a AI program on April 14 and 16 involving the entire Bendotti breeding herd and backed up to the same AI sires. Sires include Lawsons Angus bulls Evident, Ambassador and Dinky Di and Strathtay New Dimension.

Up to four lines of specially-selected unjoined Angus heifers handpicked for future breeding will be offered and drafted according to their breeding.

A feature at this year's sale is an outstanding offering of rising 2yo PTIC Angus heifers.

Pemberton graziers PW & SM Barnsby will offer a large draft of 80 outstanding heifers sourced at last year's IRA elite sale from renowned Angus herds.

The heifers are PTIC and vendor guaranteed to calve following a joining to Lawsons Angus Progress and Bartel bulls and a Strathtay Dinky Di bull from May 14 for 63 days and due to commence calving from February 14 onwards.

Due to the sale of their property, Harford Farms, Northcliffe, will offer an exceptional line of 30 rising 2yo Angus heifers.

The 15 to 16-month-old heifers are pure Lawsons Angus breeding being heifer calves at foot to females purchased from Lawsons Angus.

The heifers are PTIC to a Lawsons Angus Bartel bull.

Other vendors to offer specially selected lines of breeding heifers include long time sale supporters DW & MA Radomiljac, Pemberton, Southwest Timbers, Northcliffe and MR & EM Walker, Balingup.

The Radomiljac family will offer 65 mixed sex January to February drop Angus weaners and are sired by Strathtay and Lawsons Angus sires.

Felix Ditri trading as Southwest Timbers, will offer 50 mixed sex Angus weaners aged 8-10 months and are by Strathtay sires while MR & EM Walker will offer 78 Angus mixed sex weaners.

The Walker consignment will be made up of 46 steers averaging 360kg, a specially selected line of 20 unjoined heifers recommended for future breeding and 12 heifers averaging 300kg suited to grass fatteners.

The selected breeding heifers are sired by Lawsons Angus Novak bulls.

The Walker's eight to nine month old calves were weaned when weighed on October 30 and on sale day would have been weaned for six weeks.

Colin said the young PTIC and unmated heifers to be offered at the sale were a fantastic opportunity to source breeding females from top commercial Angus herds whose sale cattle attract return buyers every year.

Other volume vendors at the sale include Mayanup graziers Henderson-Glendale, Jarrahlea Pty Ltd and SC Nix offering a collective total of 400 weaners.

Henderson-Glendale will offer 150 mixed sex Angus and Angus-Angus/Hereford cross weaners.

The 7-8-month-old calves were sired by Lawsons Angus and Strathtay Angus bulls.

Jarrahlea Pty Ltd will offer 100 Angus and Angus sired steer weaners aged seven to eight months and are all Lawsons Angus bred.

SC Nix will offer a draft of 150 South Devon steer weaners at the sale.

The calves were born from February 1 for eight weeks and weaned on October 10 and depastured onto pastures applied with TM and GrowSafe mineral fertiliser.

The calves are sired by South Devon bulls selected for softness from the Davelle stud, Jamestown, South Australia, and will be weaned for two months at the sale.

From the neighbouring districts of Winnejup and Chowerup, NW & LW Harding and G & S Mead will offer 40 mixed sex Charolais sired weaners each respectively at the sale.

The Harding family's calves are end of March to April drop by Copplestone Charolais bulls and predominantly out of Angus cows sourced from well-known South West breeders.

The Mead family's calves are aged 7-8-month-old and are sired by select Quicksilver Charolais bulls and predominantly out of Angus and Angus-Hereford cows.

Long-time sale supporters Collins Brothers and JCC Love Family Trust, Pemberton, will again offer annual drafts at the sale.

Collins Brothers will offer 50 Angus steer weaners with the April-May-drop calves representing 100 per cent Lawsons Angus breeding along with 50 cast for age Angus cows suited to the trade.

The Love family will offer 50 Angus steer vealers and weaners aged nine to 10 months which are sired by Strathtay Angus bulls.

BJ & KA Hulcup, Quinninup, will offer 75 February to March-drop mixed sex Charolais sired vealers and straight-bred Angus steer vealers and weaners.

The Charolais sires calves are by Quicksilver Charolais bulls and out of first cross Angus-Friesian and Hereford-Friesian females and ideally suited to trade buyers while the Angus calves are all Lawsons Angus breeding.

Northcliffe producer JM & DA MacDonald and CM Iveson will offer 56 straight bred Angus steer weaners which are all sired by select Lawsons Angus bulls.

Fellow Northcliffe producer Mrs F Ditri will once again offer 50 outstanding mixed sex straight-bred Angus weaners that are sired by Strathtay and Lawsons Angus bulls.

Included in this offering will be a specially selected breeder line of Angus heifers.

Making their IRA special sale debuts is Pemberton producers Justin Omodei trading as Bluestream Properties and TP Collins & GL Della Gola.

Bluestream Properties will offer 30 mixed sex straight-bred Angus weaners while TP Collins & GL Della Gola will offer 60 mixed sex Angus weaners.

The Collins and Della Gola weaners are March to April-drop calves sired by Lawsons Angus bulls.

p Catalogues and photos will be available on the AuctionsPlus website at www.auctionsplus.com.au from 5pm Friday, December 2, or by contacting Colin Thexton, 9776 1125 or 0428 915 468.