Tropical Cattle Brahman's online sale proven a success

Although, most operations tend to stick with the traditional selling format, the team at the Tropical Cattle Brahmans had their Tropical Cattle Annual Grey Polled Genetics sale online on Saturday, for which the company said was a success.

Tropical Cattle Brahmans is situated at Orient, 15 minutes south of Ingham, in North Queensland and is owned by John and Sue Joyce and managed by Cody and Holly Sheahan.

The Joyce family offered an impressive draft of Brahmans, including 40 commercial bulls via Elite Livestock auctions on Saturday, with a 90 per cent clearance, averaging $4152 per head.

The top price bull was awarded to polled No 9 Herd Bull for $6000 and sold to Robert Herrod, Euramo.

The volume buyer was Giles Atkinson from Gunawarra, Mt Garnet, who pruchased seven Bulls.

The Joyce's also offered five registered females with a clearance of 100 per cent and a healthy average of $4300 a head, with Tropical Cattle Natasha Manso (AI) (PS) claiming top female, selling to the Pedracini Family, Lornevale, Georgetown.

There was also two lots of eight commercial females sold for $3050 a head with one lot selling to 3C farms represented by Derrick Finlayson and one lot to the Finlayson operation.

Three lots of the eight semen packages were sold for an average of $1666 for 5 straws.

The top price package was claimed by Willtony Sherwood (PP) and Willtony Sherwood (PP) for $400 a straw and $2000 a package.

Overall, there were 48 registered users with lots sold south to Gympie, west to Muttaburra and Normanton, North to Ravenshoe and Euramo.

Tropical Cattle Brahmans owner John Joyce said the online format was efficient, but acknowledged some buyers still prefer the traditional method of buying cattle in person.

"The online sale was terrific, we can pass on the savings, we don't have to track things anywhere, it's very cost effective, and we can just pass on that to the bull buyers," Mr Joyce said.

"At the moment there's a lot of people that don't like the online method, but we found it absolutely suits our operation."

The Joyce's Orient property is well situated in the far-north and Mr Joyce said they receive reliable rainfall year after year, giving them a huge advantage in the cattle market.

"It's a pretty good place to operate from, we can always bank on it starting to rain at the end of November and stopping in May and that's a hell of an advantage really," Mr Joyce said.

"The Brahmans are improving every year, that gets better and better and it's not happening in all breeds and that's what's creating the demand."

Queensland Rural Livestock Specialist Shaun Flanagan said the Orient managers presented an impressive draft of Brahmans for sale.

"Very happy with how Cody and the team at the Orient presented the bulls and the desired outcomes were achieved, spreading the bulls far and wide through North Queensland," Mr Flanagan said.

"We sell these bulls every year, but we just thought the time was right, especially now that everyone's more accepting of the online sales at the moment, we thought we'd give this format a go and very happy and it will continue into the future.

"We've seen an excellent season and cattle prices are exceptional, we could certainly do a bit more rain, but hopefully that comes in, in the near future."

Mr Flanagan said the aptitude for buyers purchasing cattle online was increasing.

"I think people are just worked out that they've had to change and as buyers they've had to try something new and they're making decisions online without physically seeing the animal," Mr Flanagan said.