Drensmaine tops Barcoo Breeders Santa Gertrudis sale with $30,000 sale

The need for fresh bloodlines for their stud is what prompted Dangarfield Santa Gertrudis stud co-principal Ben Adams to head out from his home base at Taroom to the western Queensland Santa sales, where a sire from the Tambo-based Drensmaine stud caught his eye.

Being shown by the Sargood family at the Barcoo Breeders sale at the Blackall saleyards on Tuesday, they outlaid $30,000 and set the top price for Drensmaine Guard (P).

Mr Adams said the bull, sired by Drensmaine Yukon and weighing 926kg at 23 months, was very complete.

"For a bull with a lot of muscle and carcase qualities, he was very smooth and balanced,"

He had a daily weight gain of 1.24kg and an eye muscle area of 140 square centimetres, as well as semen morphology of 80pc.

Drensmaine's Matt Sargood said the bull's strengths were evidenced once the draft came into feed, gaining 364kg in less than three months.

"That's what you're trying to breed," he said. "He never stopped going forward."

Mr Adams will be putting him straight to work in his own stud at Taroom, bearing in mind an unprecented demand for his paddock bulls, which he sold out of two months earlier than usual.

He credits the breed for making a good impression on potential buyers.

Related: Drensmaine tops Barcoo Breeders with $26,000

Hughenden producers Barry and Tanya Christiansen outlaid $22,000 for the second top priced bull, Drensmaine Graduate, whose lineage goes back to Strathmore Yogi.

He tipped the scales at 960kg and recorded an average daily weight gain of 1.29kg.

After topping Blackall's store sale in August with a draft of nine-month-old weaner steers at 320c/kg, Mr Christiansen said the marketing aspects of Santa Gertrudis were what they were looking for.

"We were looking for length and depth," he said.

The Sargood family sold all 38 bulls offered for an average of $9842 and Mr Sargood said it had been exciting to see the stands packed and new buyers.

"If we can get a good bull in their hands, they'll be coming back," he said.

Middleton's Anita Rodgers was one of the sale's volume buyers with eight purchases, concentrating mainly on Forest Park bulls, saying she was breeding bullocks so eye muscle was important to her.

"We breed and background and we've got to have bulls that will cover the country," she said.

Ms Rodgers arrived at Brackenburch near Middleton from Taroom five days before February's monsoon started and it was eight weeks before the Diamantina River subsided on the property.

"We lost a lot of stock in the flood and we need more," she said.

Other volume buyers were Wells and Son, Elrose, Boulia with seven head, Brigadoon Cattle Co buying seven head also for Speed family properties Linda Downs at Boulia and Tarlton Downs near Alice Springs, and D and S Campbell, Currawarra, Mitchell, taking home nine bulls.

A top price of $10,000 was reached twice for the Allen family's Forest Park stud at Blackall, paid by Gray and Son, Albrach, Longreach, and by Scott and Wendy Ferguson, Glenn Oaks, Nobby.

Both aged 24 months, each bull had semen morphology of 83pc.

The first, Forest Park Landslide had a daily weight gain of 1.15kg and P8 and rib fat measurements of 14mm and 10mm.

The second, Forest Park Legislator weighed 802kg, had a daily weight gain of 1.05kg and an EMA of 124sq cm.

The stud averaged $5897 and had a 90pc clearance rate. Speaking on behalf of her father Sir William Allen, Liz Allen said they had been pleased with the sale considering the season had once again been against them.

A new lucky draw for a $2000 cash rebate saw Ryan Brothers, Duthie Park and John and Nell Cameron, all of Blackall, plus Wells and Son, Elrose, Boulia, benefit.