THE continued demand for bulls meant a new initiative, the Elders Albany Winter Bull Sale was a solid success when it was held at the Mount Barker Regional Saleyards last week.
All up in the sale 19 bulls representing four breeds from five studs were offered and by sale's end, 13 had been cleared under the hammer at an average of $6058.
Prices rose to a top of $10,000 which was paid for an Angus sire from the Pratt family's Ballawinna Angus stud, Albany.
The first lot to go under the hammer, Ballawinna Patriot was a Deer Valley Patriot 3222 son and was knocked down to first time Ballawinna client Steve Moir, Woodburn Grazing, Porongorup.
Securing the bull on behalf of Mr Moir was Elders Mt Barker agent Dean Wallinger.
Mr Wallinger said that Mr Moir was after a bull specifically to use over heifers.
"Steve runs a straight Angus herd and wanted something to use specifically for heifers," Mr Wallinger said.
"This bull was a complete sire visually, with excellent structure, good even muscle and moderate frame."
At 665 kilograms, Patriot was the ideal bull for heifer use with +1.7 for birthweight (top 10pc of the breed), +9.3 for calving ease direct (top 5pc) and -10 for gestation length (top 2pc).
The remainder of the Ballawinna Angus sires continued to be well received, with Elders Albany representative Jai Newman securing two bulls and paying good money at $7000 and $5000 for two Ballawinna boys.
Lyrics Pty Ltd, Albany, were also active on the Ballawinna sires and it paid $6000 for a single bull.
The last two Ballawinna sires were knocked down for $5000 each with Pardee Grazing, Kendenup, buying one and Gilnochie Pty Ltd, Jerramungup, the other.
All up in the sale, the Ballawinna stud offered eight Angus sires and sold seven under the hammer for an average of $6143.
The second top price of the sale came from the Limousin section of the catalogue with the Morrisvale Limousin stud, Narrikup, offering up the youngest team in the sale with three exceptionally well-fleshed February and March 2021-drop yearling bulls.
All three of these sires sold to strong demand and a sale second top price of $8500 was achieved when the first bull offered was knocked down to new Morrisvale client Tim Robinson, TDP Robinson, Youngs Siding.
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Mr Robinson is familiar with the Limousin breed in that he has used Limousin over his Angus herd to produce calves destined for the feedlot, but it was the first time he had purchased from the Morrisvale stud.
"I was impressed with the quality of the Morrisvale sires," Mr Robinson said.
"The bull I selected had an exceptional temperament and his overall muscling and structure was hard to fault."
At 565kg, Morrisvale S7 was from the well-known Morrisvale Lumberjack and Morrisvale Pandora's Flame bloodline combination and Morrisvale stud co-principal James Morris said that the sire had already been collected and semen sold to Queensland.
The remaining Morrisvale sires continued to be well received and this time it was TD Robinson, Youngs Siding, who secured the second offered Morrisvale sire paying $8250 while Luzny Agri Holdings, Manjimup, bought the last Limousin bull for $6500.
The three bulls offered and sold by the Morrisvale stud in the sale averaged $7750, which was the best average for any stud in the sale.
Of the three Narralda Shorthorn bulls offered in the sale one sold under the hammer and it was purchased at $4000 by D & W Elphick, McKail, while a second Narralda bull sold under the hammer at $3500.
The only other stud to sell a bull in the sale was Zakanaka Angus, Youngs Siding.
The stud offered three bulls and sold one under the hammer for $5000.
