Three Kimberley cattle companies came to buy at the fifth annual Valera Vale sale in the Charleville district last Friday, bidding up a storm as the north-westerlies whipped up the clouds.
Between the three operators, WNM MacDonald Pty Ltd at Fossil Downs, the Smoothy Cattle Co, and Haydn Sale from Yougawalla Pastoral at Halls Creek, they finished the sale with 67 stud bulls between them.
It was a pleasing result for vendor Michael Flynn who said that buyers with volume requirements were always good for a stud.
“We’re not you’re typical stud – we run our bulls in the same way we rear our bullocks, under normal commercial conditions.
“Our kind of buyer wants morphology testing and doesn’t want hoofs trimmed.”
Two of the stud’s bulls held special appeal for Gayndah’s John Edwards, Barlyne Pastoral, who paid both the top and second-top prices, of $14,000 and $9000.
Buying at Valera Vale for the first time for himself, John said the poll and morphology tests were what they took note of the most, and double poll results were notable in the specifications of their top purchase, Valera Vale 5254.
The 23-month-old with dual Valera Vale genetics had a sale weight of 664kg and an average daily weight gain of 1.76kg.
Their other purchase, Valera Vale 5108 was sired by Aldinga Deadly and had a semen morphology result of 81 per cent and a sale weight of 704kg.
While local buyers were not operating in a big way, due to lower breeding numbers, some, including Ross Shapcott, Reynella, Charleville and D and J Godwin, Springsure purchased six each, while Devenish Grazing at Blackall secured five bulls.
- Selling agents – Elders and Landmark