Whether their colour was black, red, roan or chestnut, bulls at the reborn Longreach invitational sale found a ready market on Tuesday.
While the top price honours of $14,000 went to SB Hayward and KL Smith's K5X Angus stud at Allora, the Shorthorn bulls offered by Royalla in NSW and the Santa Gertrudis bulls from Bendalla at Longreach shared average honours.
The Job family's Royalla stud finished with an average price of $7367 while Bevan and Maree Pearce's offering rounded out at an average of $7409.
The second top priced bull of the sale was from the Price family's Moongool Simbrah stud at Surat, which received $13,000.
The sale had had a seven-year hiatus thanks to drought but the improved seasons and restocked paddocks prompted its return, with eight vendors offering 110 lots across seven breeds.
The overall sale average was $6429 and the clearance rate was 82 per cent.
K5X's Stephen Hayward said it was good to have the western venue to sell at again.
He received a price of $14,000 twice on Tuesday, paid for by the Fernie family of Riverview at Clermont, buying online, and by the Parker family, Clare Station, Jericho.
The latter bought seven Angus bulls in all, plus a Shorthorn bull, and Chris Parker said they'd be putting them over their first calf Brahman and Brahman-cross heifers.
"We bought these bulls at Roma a couple of years ago and liked their low birth weight, for ease of calving, and this gives us a little bit of variety," she said. "We liked that these bulls were younger too, so we can keep them for longer."
Their top purchase, K5X Transformer T63 weighed 758kg, had an eye muscle area of 127 square centimetres, P8 and rib fat measurements of 12 and 7 millimetres, and intra-muscular fat of 5.7 per cent.
The equal top K5X bull, Terminator T92 weighed 820kg, had an EMA of 131sq cm, P8 and rib fat measurements of 9 and 6mm, and IMF of 5pc.
Mr Hayward said the bulls he'd brought up for the sale at the WQLX selling complex were clean-skinned and had plenty of growth in them.
"The sale was pretty solid - I was very happy with our top price," he said.
Moongool's Ivan Price similarly described it as a good strong sale, especially as he recorded a 100pc clearance.
His top priced bull, Moongool T221 was 948kg at 24 months, had an EMA of 135sq cm, P8 and rib fat of 10 and 6mm, and IMF of 5.2pc.
It and three other Simbrah bulls plus a Clay Gully Simmental bull were bought by the Fielder family of Oakvale Station, 130km north east of Aramac.
It was the first time Moongool had been part of the Longreach sale and Mr Price said it had been a good opening for his Simbrah bulls, thanks to their hardiness and cross-breeding aptitude.
"The top bull had beautiful skin and hair and his weight for age was one of the better ones in the catalogue, I thought," he said. "He was a type that suits this area."
Also in the stands to buy Simbrah bulls were Adcock Partners Property and Livestock Quilpie representative Sam Bartlett and Wanaaring NSW clients Martin and Rose Myors, plus Ho Myoung Farm PL, who bought 10 bulls between them.
Mr Bartlett said they'd been long-term clients of the Mobbs family at Gowrie, Charleville, and found the Longreach sale was a good opportunity to buy bulls at the start of the season.
"The shopping's done early," he said, adding that their purchases would acclimatise well to the conditions.
Vendor summary
- Royalla Shorthorns - 19 offered, 79pc clearance, top $12,000, average $7367
- Ardrossan Angus - 10 bulls offered, 100pc clearance, top $6000, average
- K5X Angus - 15 offered, 53pc clearance, top $14,000, average
- Ardrossan Ultrablack - 10 offered, 90pc clearance, top $7500, average $6056
- Clay Gully and Biarra Valley Simmental - 10 offered, 80pc clearance, top $7500, average $5625
- Moongool Simbrahs - 26 offered, 100pc clearance, top $13,000, average $7173
- Samari Brahmans - 8 offered, 50pc clearance, top $5500, average $5125
- Bendalla Santa Gertrudis - 12 offered, 91.5pc clearance, top $10,000, average $7409