Despite a challenging selling season with plain weather conditions across the region, livestock producers during the Central Reds Droughtmaster bull sale at Emerald were willing to open their wallets for quality bulls.
Jenny and Lance Muller, Orchid Vale, Rolleston, held out until lot 20 to buy the main bull they had their eye on with Mostyndale 784 (P) Droughtmaster sire reaching $10,000 before the sale hammer was lowered.
The equal top priced bull, Mostyndale 784 (P), will now go into the Muller family’s commercial breeding cattle herd to produce progeny for bullock and prime heavy heifer beef markets.
The 22-month-old polled bull was offered for sale by Kevin and Leesa Woolcock, Mostyndale Droughtmaster Stud, Springsure and recorded a weight of 695 kilogram with 11 millimetres of fat on the rump and 8 millimetres of fat on the rib area. The bull also had an eye muscle area of 125 centimetres squared and a scrotal measurement of 41 centimetres.
“The Mostyndale bull we purchased had good intramuscular fat percentage and that’s very important I believe when producing beef cattle for the bullock market,” Mr Muller said.
The Mostyndale 784 (P) bull had the highest intramuscular fat percentage of the sale at 5.4 per cent.
“We run predominately Braford cattle and use the Droughtmaster bulls to cross breed new bloodlines into our commercial beef cattle herd,” Mr Muller said.
“I also like early maturing bulls for our cattle operation because it helps to continue producing progeny that can reach bullock finishing stage even during dry times, plus I also believe you still need to balance out your beef herd genetics with large framed, later maturing bulls as well.”
The Muller family have been buying bulls at the Central Reds Droughtmaster bull sale for the past four years.
Second equal top priced bull at $10,000 was Mostyndale 781 (P) bull who sold to Western Australian buyer WNM Macdonald, Fossil Downs Station, Fitzroy Crossing, WA.
The polled bull weighed in at 705 kilogram and recorded 13 millimetres of fat on the rump and 9 millimetres of fat on the rib area, plus a 38 centimetre scrotal measurement and 122 centimetre squared eye muscled area.
Overall, a total of 45 bulls sold out of the 64 bulls offered by the six stud vendors at the Central Reds Droughtmaster bull sale and averaged $4988 with a sale gross of $224,500.
The third top priced bull of the sale was Mostyndale 792 (P) for $9500 and sold to WNM Macdonald, Fossil Downs, Fitzroy Crossing, WA.
The 21-month-old polled bull recorded a weight of 630 kilograms with a scrotal measurement of 34 millimetres and 10 millimetres of fat on the rump and 6 millimetres of fat on the rib area, plus an eye muscle area of 115 centimetres squared.
The fourth topped priced bull of the sale was Kenlogan Urana (P) NJ216895M D5 Droughtmaster sire who sold to $9000 to Talagai Grazing Co, Capella.
The 22-month-old scurred bull weighed 795 kilogram and had an eye muscle area of 127 centimetres squared with 13 millimetres of fat on the rump and 8 millimetres of fat on the rib area, plus an scrotal measure of 41 centimetres.
Read more: Droughtmaster Futurity Show 2018