Collinsville's Fry family of Strathmore Station secure 20 bulls at Rockhampton Brahman Week Sale

The variety of bloodlines were enough to entice first time buyers Strathmore Station to make the journey south to purchase bulls for their operation near Collinsville.

About 27km of the Bowen River runs through Strathmore Station, a 48,562 ha breeding and fattening property, which has been owned by Paul and Sally Fry since 2009.

Mrs Fry is a descendent of the well known Queensland pastoralist Edward (Ned) Cunningham, whose pastoral partnerships were said to span from Collinsville to the outskirts of Townsville at the turn of last century.

Purchasing the bulls on behalf of Paul and Sally at this year's sale, was their son Mitch Fry and their station's cattle operator Dan Condon.

Operating under the bid card of Strathmore Family Trust, the station purchased 20 bulls for an average of $14,450.

Mr Condon said Strathmore Station's recent success in their calving rates motivated them to attend this year's sale to secure new sires.

"Our calving rate is running between 85 and 88pc, which is pretty good," he said.

"This rate has motivated Strathmore to purchase new bloodlines for their herd and get a bit of a different line of bulls, then what we have been buying around Charters Towers and Clermont area."

Strathmore Station is currently running up to 6000 Brahman breeders.

"We believe the cattle that we're running at the moment, represent a pretty strong Brahman herd," Mr Condon said.

Strathmore Station plans to put their new purchases in with a mob of 600 Brahman heifers, sometime in December this year.

Mr Condon said they weren't sure what to expect coming into the sale, in terms of prices and quality of the animals.

"We thought it could have been a lot more dearer than what it was, so we were pretty lucky, I think to get our money's worth," he said.

"I think it was fairly important to get a look at all the bulls on the first day when they're in the yards, which gave us a rough idea of what bulls we were looking at buying.

"We were selecting on their structural soundness, how they moved, and their overall carcase appeal."

Strathmore Station usually sends their cattle to the export market, but following a pause this year in the market, they have enjoyed good prices at the Emerald Prime and Store Sale this season.

"We've sent 1800 head to the Emerald cattle sales this season and their return has been great," Mr Condon said.

Back in March this year, Strathmore sold a large draft of both steers and heifers, with the steers portion topping at 790c with the draft averaging 717c to weigh 258kg or $1855.

Their sisters topped at 646c with them averaging 248kg or 631c and $1569.

North west graziers, the Glenwright family of Laroona Pastoral Company, were also first time buyers at this year's sale, and among the top volume buyers operating across the three day event.