Inaugural Casa Toro Simmental sale posts $10,117 average at Roma

The risk taken by noted Jackson Simmental breeders Scott and Claire York and family in stepping up to hold their own sale was richly rewarded at Roma on Friday.

Buyers from as far afield as Aramac, Clermont, Esk and Dirranbandi paid an average of $10,419 for their 32 bulls at the inaugural Casa Toro Simmentals invitational sale.

The Yorks were joined by Kingaroy stud breeders Lloyd and Wendy Fairbairn with two bulls for sale on the day and it was their 2019 Ekka junior champion Simmental bull, Fairhaven Payton who commanded the top price of $17,000.

By far the top weight bull in the ring at 1117kg, the two-and-a-half-year-old sire was purchased by a commercial breeder at Nanango targeting the bullock market.

Payton had an eye muscle area of 138 square centimetres, a scrotal circumference of 40cm, and semen motility of 85 per cent.

Louis Fairbairn said his length and depth spoke for themselves.

The Fairbairn's other bull, Fairhaven Preston sold for $4000 to the Collinson family at Roma, giving the stud a final result of a $10,500 average.

Related: Billa Park tops 2019 Roma Simmental sale at $22,000

Buyers paid a top of $16,000 three times when the Casa Toro stud bulls entered the new selling arena at Roma.

The first of those, Billa Park Porters Gap G301, the son of Woonallee Kansas and Billa Park Kaitlyn K112, was bought by Clay Gully and Biarra Valley Simmentals at Esk.

At 25 months, he weighed 940kg, had an EMA of 137sq cm, and rump and rib fat measurements of 12mm and 9mm respectively.

The Yorks will retain a quarter share of the traditional Simmental sire.

Next in the catalogue to make $16,000 was the red Simmental Billa Park P283, a homozygous polled 24-month-old bull, sold to Ingelara Grazing, Rolleston.

Bred from sire Casa Toro Red Lone Ranger L14 and dam Billa Park L014, he tipped the scales at 850kg, had an EMA of 143sq cm, and semen motility of 80pc.

To complete the trifecta, it was black Simmental Casa Toro Prototype, another homozygous poll, who was also sold for $16,000.

Amby's John and Cathy Beitz finally secured him after being outbid on two of the red Simmentals.

Prototype's parentage is made up of SVS Captain Morgan 11Z and Casa Toro Xsim Lucky Dice G2024Y.

Mr Beitz said they had been buying York Simmentals for around five years to put with their Santa Gertrudis and red and black Simmental females, which had seen them average $1640 at Roma three weeks ago for 18-month-old milk tooth steers turned off oats.

"Buyers seem to like the black colour," he said.

Casa Toro stud principal Scott York said the black Simmentals had gained a lot of momentum in southern states and were starting to see the same interest in Queensland.

"We were very happy with how everything sold," he said. "We've never been close to that average before - in 2016 we reached $8900 under the Billa Park prefix."

Mr York said a lot of the high end purchasers had been return clients, and many of the 35 of the registered bidders had purchased through the years and were back for more.

Six of the bulls sold at the sale were online bidders, including Burnett Enterprises at Clermont who purchased Billa Park Porsche P214, a homozygous poll, for $12,000, and Billa Park Performance Plus for $8000.

Thistlebank Grazing Co at Aramac was the sale's volume buyer with four bulls, a mixture of traditional, red and black sires, paying a top of $11,000 and an average of $8750.