There were a few new banners hanging in the back pens at this year's Droughtmaster National Sale, as an outfit of new vendors rolled into CQLX to showcase their animals on the big stage.
Sommer Droughtmasters were among those who debuted for the first time in the national sale, selling four bulls for a strong sale average of $19,250.
The stud is owned and operated by Daniel and Teneale Sommer and is based south of Gympie in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.
The Sommers were beyond satisfied with the result of their first sale and were proud of the averages and tops the bulls returned.
"We had great pre-sale interest and great comments on the cattle the whole way through," Mr Sommer said.
"It was a good lead-up to the sale and for a young batch of bulls, I'm very happy with how they performed and sold.
"Our top priced bull went for $28,000 and that was for a 20-month-old Glenlands Titan son who is going to mature into a true sire I believe."
Despite growing up surrounded by cattle on dairy farms in the Maleny area, Mr Sommers had always been drawn to the beef cattle industry, and his passion inspired him to begin his own stud.
"We've been running the stud for seven years now, but I've specifically waited until I can back up every year with quality bulls, and now I feel like we are at that point where we are able to do that and I'm happy with the product we're now breeding," he said.
"We are trying to breed cattle with early weight gain, with traits that the feedlot guys and the seedstock producers are after and we're really focusing on that early return for producers.
"We are heavily focused on genetics as well, and breeding the right article that's going to breed on with success by producing a market-relevant animal with good carcase traits, length, depth, muscle and nice soft cattle."
Mr Sommer chose the Droughtmaster breed because of their suitability to a lot of different areas.
"We are looking to be in the cattle industry for a long time and really wish to help improve and contribute to the Droughtmaster breed," he said.
"All our bulls are semen and morphology tested, Pompes negative, Pestivirus negative. Our entire herd is DNA profiled and we're just beginning to use Breedplan figures as well, so in the years to come all of our cattle will have figures to back what we are producing."
Mr Sommers also sells paddock bulls year-round, and looks forward to returning next year with a new line-up of Sommer sires.
"At the moment, we've got between 25 and 35 bulls coming through for next year and the pick out of them will end up at the national sale next year," he said.
"We've worked on our breeding pretty hard over the past seven years and are confident the type of cattle we are now producing have a place in the current and future market, both in stud and commercial operations."
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