by Andrew Mole
Beef cattle breeders and producers bid from four states at Walgett this week to snap up every one of the 111 Te Mania Angus bulls at its annual northern bull sale.
Te Mania Angus director Hamish McFarlane says buyers went into bidding duels for homebred progeny stacked with marbling.
Hamish says the total clearance saw bulls sell to $34,000 and average $16,181, with the big bucks chasing the young sires with impressive marbling pedigrees.
For example, he says the five sons of Te Mania Kirby K138 averaged 6.1 for IMF% (top 1% of the breed) sold for an average of $20,400, as did the five sons of Te Mania Qubic Q434, with an average IMF% of +4.9. 7 sons of Te Mania Neon N1387, averaged +6.7% for IMF and sold for an average of $20,857.
Neon N1387 is currently the highest ranked Angus marbling sire in Australasia.
“We were also excited by the performance of Landfall Picador – the outcross sire we purchased three years ago,” Hamish added.
“His nine sons in the sale, all from pure Te Mania Angus females, averaged an impressive $18,222.
“Top-priced bull, Lot 100, Te Mania Sunsberry S1469, went to longtime client Pru Coulton, North Star, who was at the sale with her manager Bob Hilton. This spectacular young sire, through his father, goes back through some of the greatest bulls in the Te Mania Angus gene pool, including Nebraska, Emperor, Berkley and Yorkshire. He is also the first calf out of two-year-old heifer Te Mania Jedda Q1425 from a highly proven female line.
“S1469 is a very well put together, stylish young sire with plenty of shape and body length. Weighing in at 830kg at 24 months, he is ranked in the top 5 per cent of the breed for gestation length with a figure of -8.8, and an intramuscular fat EBV of +3.9, ranking him within the top 12 per cent of the breed.”
Hamish says the second top-priced bull for the sale was Te Mania Shabazz S449, selling to Mackas Pastoral Co, Salt Ash, for $32,000.
He says this Te Mania Kirby K138 son is a bull which ticks a lot of boxes and comes from a highly proven pedigree, along with an IMF% of +6.2, being in the top 1 per cent of the breed.
O’Brien Brigalow Pastoral (Picture in above banner), Carinda, was the volume buyer for the sale, purchasing 10 bulls to a high of $22,000, and an average of $18,000 while 2022 volume buyer Roger Henwood, Aldingham, Winton, Queensland, came back for nine more bulls to a high of $18,000, and an average of $14,222 .
With 56 registrations and bulls going to Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia, Hamish says the family was delighted to see the demand for premium genetics against the backdrop of a somewhat uncertain short to medium term market conditions.
“We had a strong mix of return clients and first time buyers, some online, chasing bulls by our homebred sires, and you don’t get any better confirmation than that to know you are on the right path with your breeding programs,” Hamish says.
“We were grateful for the strong support of agents, Clemson Hiscox & Co and the extended RMA agents network, with Paul Dooley as auctioneer. AuctionsPlus chimed in with a lot of bids to help put a solid floor in the sale, with 18 bulls to a high of $22,000 and average of $14,556 knocked down to its buyers,” he added.
