Some of the cattle industry’s largest producers, along with many other well-respected commercial and stud beef cattle breeders, gathered at this year’s Greenup Eidsvold Station bull sale.
The on-going dry seasonal conditions appeared to play on the minds of bull buyers who were more selective when purchasing during the sale.
Held at Eidsvold Saleyards on Friday, the Santa Gertrudis bull sale topped at $25,000 for lot 26, Greenup Newton N22 (P), who was bought by Gina Rinehart’s S. Kidman & Co Rockybank bull breeding operation at Roma.
The bull was sired by Greenup Fitzgerald F144 (PS) and displayed an easy-doing body type that is currently showing great growth-for-age and fat cover, plus good muscling and solid bone.
The polled Greenup Newton sire entered the sale ring at 840 kilograms for his 26-month-old age with the high 1.14 kilograms-a-day ‘average daily weight gain’, the highest of the sale draft, clearly being a main reason S.Kidman & Co snapped up the impressive sire. The bull also recorded an eye muscle area scan of 130 centimetres squared with 7 millimetres of fat on the rib and 9 millimetres of fat on the rump area, plus a scrotal measurement of 43 centimetres.
S Kidman & Co Rockybank stud manager, Craig Leggett, said he was impressed by the carcase traits and easy finishing ability of the Greenup Newton bull.
“We hope this Newton sire will produce progeny that will go out in the herd and produce us easy finishing cattle with good muscling,” Mr Leggett said.
“We are currently focused on fertility and carcase because we need bulls that will go out and thrive in the challenging environment on some of our large station properties.
“We’ve been buying bulls from New South Wales and up to Eidsvold here in Queensland this stud stock selling season and have been chasing high fertility and good carcase attributes in the bulls we buy.”
It was the first time S. Kidman & Co had purchased bulls from the Greenup Eidsvold Station bull sale.
Overall, the Greenup Eidsvold Station bull sale averaged $5701 with a sale gross of $496,000, plus 115 bulls were offered with 87 sold for a sale clearance rate of 76 per cent.
Second top price bull of the sale was lot 3, Eidsvold Station Nudge N866 (AI) (PS), with the sire being purchased by Bill Speed’s Brigodoon Cattle Company, Wandoan for $20,000.
The bull was sired by Dangarfield Tycoon (P) and out of a maiden Eidsvold Station classified Santa Gertrudis polled heifer.
The deep body sire entered the Eidsvold sale ring at 818 kilograms with an eye muscle area of 128 centimetres squared. The bull also recorded 8 millimetres of fat on the rib and 12 millimetres of fat on the rump area, plus a scrotal measurement of 38 centimetres.
Mr Speed noted the Eidsvold Station Nudge sire’s early maturity growth pattern and quite disposition in his reasons for buying the bull.
Volume buyer at the Greenup Eidsvold Station bull sale was Laurence Jones, Malo, Theodore, who purchased seven bulls to a total of $37,500. Other volume buyers were Kilterry Grazing, Julia Creek, who bought six bulls to a total of $37,500, while the Ryan family, Freitag, Springsure took home six bulls, plus Sharp Pastoral , Mundubbera and Servin family, Longvale, Taroom, secured five bulls during the sale.
The Jensen family, Kalkadoon, Biloela, bought the top priced commercial herd bull during the sale for $9500 and took home three bulls for a total spend of $25,500.