Nebo's Riverside Pastoral Co secures close to $1m worth of bulls at Rockhampton Brahman Week Sale

Operating under the reserved bid card one were Allan and Jeanette Williams of Riverside Pastoral Company, Nebo.

Riverside were one of the top volume buyers of the recent sale, securing 32 head for a $28,500 average and total spend of $912,000.

Their total spend represented 6.9pc of the overall sale gross of $13 million.

Last year the Williams' put together what was then their biggest order of 13 bulls averaging $20,115 but the shopping list for 2022 was almost three times the size.

Nutrien Livestock agent James Saunders assisted Riverside with their purchases, which included 11 greys and 22 reds.

Mr Saunders said the Williams' family were very happy with the bulls they had purchased.

"Riverside were on the look out for good temperament bulls, capacity and muscle expression, good bone, polled/scurred, with tidy sheaths," he said.

"Heading into the sale, they didn't have a certain number of bulls that they were after, they just picked out the good bulls and they try put them together as best as they can.

"Riverside wants to breed the best cattle they can, so they buy the best ones they can get."

Earlier this year, the Williams' told ACM they were sitting pretty for a sensational spring with dams full and the countryside looking beautiful.

The Williams' introduced Brahmans into the herd back in the early 1970's and have been buying at the Rockhampton Brahman Week sales for the past 40 years.

Five generations of the Williams' family has been growing grass fed, organic, EU accredited beef for

They operate an EU accredited, grass fed organic herd, consisting of 6000 Brahman breeders.

Their herd is run over three properties, including the home place, Riverside, Broadmeadow, and Burton Downs, the Williams' utilise their fourth property, Olive Downs, exclusively as their bullock fattening block.

They also run Droughtmaster and Brangus cattle in their operation.

In September this year, Riverside Pastoral Co, secured 11 Droughtmaster bulls at the National Sale for a top of $28,000 for Sevenangle Omega, and an average of $19,500.

Australian Brahman Breeders Association general manager Anastasia Fanning, said the strong commercial market continued to be a major driver for buyers at the RBWS.

"With a strong outlook moving forward for the beef industry it gives operators the confidence to invest heavily in their sires and the brahman breed," Ms Fanning said.

"While it is a great reward for vendors to have a business operating such as Riverside, the sale also had a further two operations, (Rallen Australia and Hayfield Cattle Company), that purchased 32 bulls each for the averages of $7437 and $8250 respectively.

"While the number of bulls they purchase is so important, the number of bulls they bid on and are not successful at purchasing is invaluable to the sale and I am sure the vendors could not thank them enough for this involvement."

The annual sale attracted a record attendance crowd at the Central Queensland Livestock Exchange over the three days.

Ms Fanning said the sale benefited from the return of repeat volume buyers operating throughout the sale along with several that hadn't attended for a few years.

"These purchasers operate very large operations and their requirement for large quantities of bulls yearly is very evident in this sale," she said.

"They understand that there is the opportunity to purchase bulls across all values and in the process give themselves a good overall average.

"They may spend a bit more on one bull but know that by managing to purchase bulls at the lesser money will bring their average down."

Several other operations took advantage of the diverse offering, securing bulls in bulk.