Offering what they believed to be their best line-up of bulls ever, Alf and Louise Collins once again achieved a 100 per cent sale clearance on Friday.
Marking a decade of selling ALC Brahman genetics from Gundaroo Station, Nebo, the Collins family sold 140 red and grey Brahman bulls, with demand from new and repeat clients pushing the sale to a top of $16,000 for an average of $4852.
Keith and Roxy Holzwart, Avago Station, Katherine, NT, paid the top money for ALC 19-3642, a grey, homozygous polled son of ALC 16-2007 Poll Developer.
The rising 23-month-old weighed 458 kilograms in June with a scrotal measurement of 35 centimetres, and boasted impressive estimated breeding values including +46 for 600-day growth, +3.8 for scrotal size, -13.3 for days to calving, 61 for jap ox and 57 for live ex dollar indexes.
The Holzwarts also paid the second-top price of $15,000 for ALC 19-3824.
A son of ALC 14-0832 Poll Berke, the 22-month-old red polled bull weighed 450kg with a scrotal circumference of 33cm.
Their draft of new sires included four of the five homozygous polled bulls on offer, for an average of $11,500.
Long-time clients Alister and Joanne McClymont, AJM Pastoral, Burleigh, Richmond, also paid the second-top price of $15,000 for ALC 19-3453 (PS).
A son of ALC 14-1037 Brian, the 22-month-old red bull weighed 469kg and had a scrotal circumference of 37cm in June.
Purchasing on behalf of the McClymonts, Kevin Graham put together a draft of three polled bulls for an average of $10,833.
"In the bulls I buy for AJM Pastoral, I look for early age to puberty, good fertility and I try to combine it with good production figures, and in those three bulls I was able to find all of that," Mr Graham said.
Walhallow Pastoral, Katherine, NT, put together a draft of 60 bulls for an average of $3937 to be the top volume buyers, while Paraway Pastoral returned to purchase 15 bulls for a $4400 average.
Mr Collins said they were happy with the sale results and proud of the bulls they offered this year.
"Every year we strive to better our herd for commercially-relevant traits and this year the cumulative effect of genetic gain has really snowballed, both phenotypically and genotypically," he said.
"ALC bulls are not grain-fed therefore last year was a particularly tough year; since it rained in January, the bulls powered ahead."
