Te Mania Angus knocked down 160 bulls in double quick time at the recent Autumn On-Property Bull Sale and achieved a goal director Tom Gubbins says has been the target of the business since its foundation.
Tom says, the dream has always been to sell a mix of high-end bulls to other seedstock breeders but to also give as many serious commercial producers as possible access to cutting-edge genetics to fast-track their own herd profiles.
He says the sale saw 160 bulls reach a high of $41,000 and an average of $12,400.
“This year’s top-priced bull Lot 7 went to Murrindindi Station at Yea and is a son of the highly sought after Te Mania Legend L646. As well as his outstanding 600-day growth and EMA figures his dam, Te Mania Lowan P645, is being prepared to flush and supply embryos to the US”. Tom explains.
Regular clients of Te Mania Angus, Murrindindi Station have also recently purchased quality lines of Team Te Mania females from our member herds, Tonga Station and Manna Ridge, with the intention to accelerate the performance of their herd by using the bulls purchased at our Autumn Sale over the Team Te Mania cows. The advance genetics of Team Te Mania females will be on offer at the March 22, Online Commercial Female Sale, only on AuctionsPlus.
“At the same time the Autumn sale saw large-scale commercial operations which are long-term clients, including the Coulton family’s Morella Agricultural from Queensland and the Henwood family’s Aldingham Trust from Carathool in NSW and Winton in Queensland, spending on an equally large scale.
Morella Agricultural purchased 11 bulls to a high of $18,000 and average of $13,636 while Aldingham Trust put together a line of 13 to a high of $14,000 and average of $9615.
However, Aldingham’s Roger Henwood says he would have taken more but he couldn’t fit them on his truck. Unable to get his usual livestock truck off his property because of the prolonged rain, he was forced to borrow his brother’s truck from another property, and it was smaller than his.
“My connection with Te Mania Angus goes back a long way, my grandfather Stan bought me my first bull as an 18th birthday present – for $18,000. That was a lot of money for a bull back in the 1990s,” he laughed.
“And we have been buying them ever since and used them in just about every climatic condition you can imagine.”
Sinclair Munro from Booroomooka Angus, Bingara, NSW, paid $40,000 for Lot 4, Te Mania Thanos, because he simply “could not go past its combination of marbling (IMF +8.1), its calving ease numbers and very quiet, docile temperament”.
Sinclair says the bull will go straight to his August calvers, which make up 90 per cent of the Booroomooka herd as an AI sire.
Sinclair Munro from Booroomooka Angus paid $40,000 for Lot 4, Te Mania Thanos. Pictured with Te Mania Angus stud Director Tom Gubbins and Farm Manager Sam Reid, Hexham, VIC. Picture by Emily McCormack
He says as a mainly seedstock operation, Booroomooka will be selling 270 bulls at its August 16 on-property sale.
“And like Te Mania Angus, we are focused on marbling, built on balanced figures which will bend the growth curve, so you have excellent calving ease, fertility, docility, great growth and $Index figures, a combination which makes your EBVs even more valuable,” Sinclair says.
Tom Gubbins says the beef industry has been on a rollercoaster in recent years, but year-on-year for the past 12 months, all key indicators have been down – with the EYCI at the end of February back 17 per cent to 628 cents and in Victoria for the same period steers are back 30 per cent.
He says against that backdrop he felt the Te Mania Angus sale held up well, with astute buyers able to fill their order books with “next generation genetics”.
“This was the first sale in our new venue at our home property Merrang, using the original woolshed, and we were able to have all the sale bulls penned in the one area in front of it so they could all be seen at the same time,” Tom added.
“A lot of work from a lot of family and staff has gone into getting it ready for this sale, and it was a great way to kick off the launch of the new complex.”
Te Mania Angus stud co-directors Tom Gubbins and Hamish McFarlane, Hexham, with farm manager Sam Reid, Hexham and their top-priced bull. Picture by Barry Murphy
