Glenlea Beef inaugural Charolais bull sale tops $25,000 in Clermont

Glenlea Beef offered an impressive draft of 21 sires, for a 100 per cent clearance, grossing $167,500 and averaging $8023, with the first five red factor polled Charolais bulls averaging $14,300.

Stud principal Roderick Binny said he was extremely happy with their first sale in Clermont.

"It was a tremendous success by any measure and we had a lot of support from New South Wales and southern Queensland on the phone," Mr Binny said.

"As the sale wasn't online, we went back to the good old days when everyone had to be on the phone and that's one of the reasons why we had a Helmsman sale."

The sale was topped by Glenlea Pheonix (P) R/F, selling to repeat volume buyer Chris Hall, Nymboida via Grafton, NSW, for $25,000.

The 26-month-old homozygous polled bull was sired by Glenlea Just Red (P) R/F who is the current leading sire in the Glenlea herd.

The bull had the appeal and figures to back him in the ring, weighing in at 1154 kilograms, with an eye muscle area of 161 square centimetres and scrotal measurement of 43cm.

He also boasted fat scans at the rump and rib of 15mm and 9mm respectively, with an intramuscular fat of 5.6pc.

Mr Binny said Chris was a long-time buyer of Glenlea genetics, having supported Glenlea over the past 10 years.

"Chris has a purebred Charolais herd and produces bulls for cross breeding and his herd is based on Glenlea genetics," Mr Binny said.

"Chris had a number of horned cows in the herd and the fact that Pheonix was homozygous polled, he wanted to breed some more reds to come in through the program."

Attracting strong interest behind Glenlea Phoenix was Glenlea Quartermaster (P) R/F, who sold to Charnelle Charolais for $18,000.

The 19-month-old sire weighed in at 898kg, with an EMA of 144sq cm and scrotal circumference of 39cm, rump and rib fat of 11mm and 7mm, and IMF of 4.8pc.

The young sire heads to Charnelle Charolais to join over 30 females and will be their most used sire in 2020.

Glenlea Pitfire (P) R/F sold to repeat buyer of Glenlea sires, Shane Benny, Benningang Grazing, for $10,500.

The 26-month-old homozygous, red factor sire prospect weighed in at 1127kg, had an EMA of 157sq cm and measured 40cm in the scrotum.

This was the sixth sire Mr Benny has purchased from Glenlea in the last 18 months.

Aberleigh Cattle, Alpha, were the top volume buyers, purchasing four lots to average $5750.

Glenlea Beef attracted strong interest from new buyers in the Clermont region, with most bulls selling across a wide area, including two to Charters Towers, two to Proserpine, six to Alpha, two to Springsure and two to Emerald.

"We're very Queensland focused with our breeding and bull program and we're getting a lot of repeat business, so the bulls are working," Mr Binny said.

"Queensland obviously has the biggest numbers of cattle in Australia, but more importantly, Charolais as a breed are growing their market share in Queensland at the expense of probably a couple of other breeds."