Sale summary: $7494 av, $40,000 top price, 100pc clearance
Andrew Bassingthwaighte has spent about $100,000 on stud bulls this year but it was on Tuesday afternoon that he made his most expensive buy to date.
The picturesque Moonbong Range was the backdrop to the final event in the 2018 western Queensland Santa Gertrudis circuit, held by the Strathmore stud outside Blackall.
Capping off two strong days of sales in the region, the top priced bull went for $40,000 to Mr Bassingthwaighte of the Yarrawonga Cattle Company, who said it had a few special traits.
The bull, Strathmore Nexus (PS), was particularly attractive because of its average daily weight gain of around 1.24kg, Mr Bassingthwaighte said.
"Just with that body capacity, structural correctness and efficiency I think he's got so many good things going for him," he said.
"He really does have a few special things on his side."
The 23-month-old bull also had a 90 pc morphology, a 43 centimetre scrotal circumference and a "lovely temperament" on its side, Mr Bassingthwaighte said.
"We will try and breed a few bulls out of him, stick something across him and try to get a combination out of what he's got," he said.
"We've probably purchased around $100,000 worth of bulls this year all around the place, picking up different stud sires.
"This is probably the most expensive fella we've bought this year, for $40,000."
The Strathmore sale had a 100 per cent clearance rate, a fitting finale to three successful events for Santa Gertrudis studs in the Blackall region.
The Swan Hill/ Eyriewald sale on Monday had a combined clearance rate of 96 pc, while the Barcoo Breeders sale on Tuesday morning had a clearance rate of 93 pc.
Strathmore had an average sale price of $7494 and the combined total across 81 bulls was $607,000.
Ben Walker of Strathmore said the stud had favoured high roughage diets to prepare bulls for this year's sale.
"We don't feed them a lot of grain, we just try to get them up to the weight as slowly as we can to try and keep them healthy," he said.
The day's average price and clearance rate were an excellent result for Strathmore, Mr Walker said.
James Pearson bought five bulls at the Strathmore sale, including the second highest priced bull, Strathmore Nightcap (P) for $24,000.
"We were looking for good, easygoing bulls that have been bred in this country and haven't had too much feed," he said.
"It's a terrific line of polled bulls and we were lucky enough to get five of them."
The Speed family from Tobermory on the Queensland/ Northern Territory border were notable volume buyers across the three sales, buying a total of 37 bulls, including 11 at Strathmore.
