Sale summary: 66 bulls sold; top price $16,000; average price $6515; 100pc clearance.
In her third year of offering bulls for sale, Hayley Piggott topped the Aldinga Droughtmasters sale at the Springsure Showgrounds on Wednesday.
Hayley, the daughter of Aldinga stud principals Terry and Catherine Piggott, operates her own stud on the property and it was one of her bulls, 21-month-old Taranguay Cytoleine 29 who commanded the top price of $16,000.
A scurred bull, he was sold to Ian and Prue Becker, IPB Agriculture, Passchendale, Moura.
It was the temperament of the bulls on offer that the Beckers found generally attractive, and Cytoleine's fertility statistics that particularly appealed.
Weighing in at 822kg, his semen morphology was 78 per cent. Also impressive was his 100-day average daily weight gain of 2kg plus his eye muscle area of 137 square centimetres.
He was sired by Aldinga Flag and an Aldinga cow, 13/161.
The Beckers run a mixed breeding and trading operation, plus cropping, at Moura. Mr Becker said they had purchased bulls at the 2017 Aldinga sale and it was time to introduce new sires.
They also secured Redwing Aegon 110, a homozygous polled 21-month-old bull, for $5500 at Wednesday's sale.
Ms Piggott sold all five of her bulls for an average of $9200, with her second top price, $12,000 being paid by Whitehead Pastoral Co, Satellite, Springsure.
The top priced bull sold by her parents was Aldinga Kittyhawk 118, who went to Gadwell Grazing at Alpha for $15,000.
Sired by Sugerland Honda and having Aldinga Francesca as his dam, 22-month-old Kittyhawk, a scurred bull, weighed 782kg and had an EMA of 140sq cm.
His semen morphology was 87pc.
Terry Piggott said he still had a bit of growing to do and would fill out into a big bull for the owners.
Buyer Bevan Everingham said he would go into their commercial Droughtmaster herd.
"We bought from Aldinga a few years back and we liked what we could see online," he said.
"Plus the Piggotts offer a run so you can see what they're breeding.
"They have good coats, good statistics and they're all quiet."
Gadwell Grazing was one of the volume buyers at the sale, trucking a total of five bulls back to their country 25km north of Alpha.
As was the case last year, Western Australian buyer KAPCO, from Myroodah Station at Derby, was the main volume buyer, purchasing 14 head this year for the base price of $4000 each.
John Sparrow, North Tullamore, Alpha, added to his purchases at the Central Reds sale the day before at Emerald and successfully bidded for five Aldinga bulls averaging $7900.
He paid a top price of $12,000 for Aldinga Knowledge 125, whose sire was Sugerland Honda and dam was Aldinga Geneva.
Also outlaying $12,000 at the sale was BS, JM and TD Bauman and SM Acton, Dingo, for Aldinga 316, a homozygous polled herd bull weighing 846kg and with semen morphology of 80pc.
Calioran Pastoral Co, Katrina, Rolleston, paid $12,500 for another herd bull, Aldinga 251. His EMA was 132sq cm and his semen morphology was 85pc.
Bidding throughout the sale was free-flowing and vendor Terry Piggott said a 100pc clearance was always good to see.
- Selling agents - Elders, Noffkes' Rural