A BOLD move two years ago by Darren Hegarty to move his Carabar annual on-property bull sale to the back of the Queensland Angus sales circuit paid big dividends after 52 bulls averaged $14,231 at Meandarra on Friday.
To put this result into perspective in 2019 (mid August sale) the Hegarty family averaged $4587 and the move to an October fixture last year boosted their average to $7155 and this year's average was almost double their previous result.
The result was made even more impressive when you consider the majority of the sale bulls were yearlings which were born in a drought.
An obviously delighted Mr Hegarty said he was very happy with the performance of his junior draft especially their weight-for-age and their overall performance data.
"It was great to see so many repeat clients and a big increase in new faces to our sale," Mr Hegarty said.
High profile interstate studmasters Greg and Sharon Fuller of Pine Creek Angus at Cowra, New South Wales operating through Glen Waldron, GDL, Meandarra paid the $26,000 top money for Carabar Redcliffe R204, a 13-month-old son of Carabar Pioneer P247 which weighed 654kgs and was supported with an intramuscular fat percentage of 6.8.
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Mr Waldron said Carabar Redcliffe was a standout in terms of his weight-for-age, carcase data and good all round estimated breeding values.
Large scale commercial beef producer Mick Gibson, Gibson Grazing, Olinda Park, Dalby outlaid the $23,000 second highest money for Carabar Ryan R111, a high growth, top performance son of Carabar Wheel Wright M181.
Mr Gibson said Carabar Ryan had a good 'bully look about him' and was the best Breedplan figured bull in the catalogue and was supported with excellent raw data weight-for-age figures and eye muscle area.
He said Carabar Ryan will go into a herd of top quality Angus cows and will form part of his overall strategy which aims to produce 150 bulls a year for use in his family's vast holdings.
Typical of the regular buyers were long-term clients Brian and Doug Cameron, Doug Cameron Livestock Trust, Nive Downs, Augathella who paid $15,500 average for two herd improvers with excellent growth for age and carcase figures.
Doug Cameron said his family had been buying Carabar bulls for 16 years and had found they performed exceptionally well in his operation.
"These bulls tick all the boxes on our benchmark in terms of muscle, growth, intramuscular fat and scrotal circumference and we focus heavily on 400-day growth and high IMF percentages," said Mr Cameron.
He said the bulls will go over deregistered stud Brahman females with the resulting F1s going back to Charolais bulls with the steer portion bound for the heavy feed on market.
Agents were Elders and GDL with AuctionsPlus.
Full report in next week's Queensland Country Life.
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