2009 NORTHERN SPRING BULL SALE RESULTS - WALGETT

On September 10th we staged our Northern Spring Bull Sale in Walgett.

122 bulls were offered, with all bulls sold, for an average of $5664, a top of $14,000 and a gross of $691,000.

While stud breeders cherry-picked the catalogue, it was the discerning commercial breeders who put the enthusiastic floor in the sale.

A sale strong enough that the last bull through the ring was knocked down for $6000.

The sale-high Lot 93 Te Mania Corfu C1118 was an outstanding example of a homebred bull a Te Mania Zambia Z69 son out of donor female Te Mania Barunah Y337.

Corfu a smooth and muscly package was purchased by Chris Knox and Helen Alexander, Bora Station, Rocky Glen via Coonabarabran.

Corfu is so complete, with his great calving ease, moderate birth weight (+4.0) and high 600-day weight (+104), matched with brilliant carcase figures of +65 for carcase weight, +5.7 for eye muscle area and a long fed $Index of $125.

We are delighted with the way the sale ran, with the number of buyers who turned up and registered and the endorsement of the quality of the catalogue.

Te Mania Angus is not just about having the best figures in the Angus business.

Every bull in any of our sales undergoes a rigorous and independent structural assessment if its conformation is not above average it is gone, no matter how good its figures.

We do not just want bulls that look good on paper, we want bulls which breed to type and which don't just survive, but thrive and replicate.

The Walgett sale further proves the Angus is without doubt the favoured breed in the beef cattle business today.

It is riding a wave of national, and international, demand as a product which consumers recognise and for which they are prepared to pay.

CAAB has been such a hit, and has built unstoppable momentum.

Now McDonald's has jumped on board and its McAngus products will provide a massive awareness boost for the breed.

And having 800-plus outlets across the country is not going to hurt demand either ' McDonald's sells Australian beef by the thousands of tonnes.

Bulk buyers included:

' Kia Ora Pastoral Co, Walgett, purchased 14 bulls for an average of $5071.

' Minnamurra Pastoral Co, Wollar, took 12 bulls for an impressive $7500.

' Michael O'Brien, Brigalows, put together a line of eight, right behind that figure, for an average of $7438.

The average EBVs in our Walgett sale team is in the top 10 pc of the Australian Angus breed for the long fed $Index value at $107, and carcase weight at +59kg.

They were also packed with the marbling the industry demands ' with an intra muscular fat (IMF) average of +1.6, which is double the breed average.

Putting all that into big, beefy bulls which will cope with demanding geography and climate of Queensland and northern and western NSW is something we have worked hard on for the past 10 years.