AN outstanding proven matron - the 2011 Royal Adelaide Show grand champion Poll Hereford cow - continued to turn heads at the Cannawigra Complete Female Sale at Avenue Range on Monday, making the $16,000 top price.
The eight-year-old Cannawigra X8 Juno B43 and her classy seven-month heifer calf was one of the many highlights of the on-property sale.
She was a daughter of Cannawigra S5 Batman which has bred so well for the stud, while the calf was by out-cross United States bull SLDK Vendetta, the Denver horned champion in 2011.
Andrew and Lee Green, Red Hill stud, Euroa, Vic, won the bidding tussle for Juno B43 against strong phone bidding by Elders Vic auctioneer Ross Milne.
"It is not very often you get to pick the top out of a very good herd," Mr Green said.
"We only wanted the very best and we thought she was the very best and the Vendetta heifer calf was also an attraction."
It was the third major stud whiteface female sale in less than a fortnight but buyers still turned out in force to farewell one of SA's oldest and most influential Poll Hereford studs.
They recognised the rare opportunity to buy 64 years of top quality breeding from the Steer and Copping families, which included a great cross-section of exciting genetics from Australian, New Zealand and US sires.
An added attraction was the predictability of the herd with Cannawigra one of the few studs with a five-star rating for Breedplan completeness of recording.
Every state and territory of Australia was represented in the buying list, including many prominent horned and poll whiteface studs, and other breeders just starting out.
* Full report in Stock Journal, November 20, 2014 issue.