THE sky was the limit for bidders at Sterita Park Angus stud's on-property sale on Monday especially for an AI-bred son of United States sire Musgrave Big Sky which set a $27,500 stud record.
The DiGiorgio family posted an astonishing $12,316 average in a total clearance of their 87 bulls, smashing their 2020 sale average by a remarkable $4026.
Last year 88 bulls topped at $17,000 and averaged $8290.
From the first bid the sale was red hot, taking until lot 48 for a bull to be knocked down under $10,000.
Lake Ellen Pastoral Co, Tintinara, outlasted stiff competition to secure lot 25, Sterita Park Q142, for the sale high of $27,500.
Manager Jonathan Pietzsch said Q142,a February 2019-drop, was very structurally correct, had a good balance of traits and was an outcross for their herd with Big Sky on the sire line and out of a KM Broken Bow female.
"It had the best back end on a bull we had seen looking around the field days," he said.
The 858 kilogram bull was well suited to heifers with a low birth weight figure of +2.9 and a calving ease daughters of +7.6- both in the top 10 per cent to 20pc of the TransTasman Angus Cattle Evaluation.
Lake Ellen plans to collect semen in Q142 and mate 100 heifers this year in an AI program as well as using their new sire in their bull breeding program with some mature cows.
Pushing them all the way was respected weaner producers, WV James & Son, Cooranga, Lucindale, who took home four bulls to a $18,500 high for lot 27, a son of KM Broken Bow 002, weighing 838kg.
Cooranga averaged $16,000 for its buys.
Regular top end buyers JE&LR Gosse, Penola, went to $22,000 for lot 26, Sterita Park Melody Q27 and $20,000 for lot 5, Sterita Park Q177.
For the third year in a row Legh Winser, Benara Pastoral, Mount Gambier, dominated the bidding taking home an incredible 38 bulls for a $12,900 average.
He started many bulls at $10,000 and paid $17,000 twice for lot 4, Sterita Park Q260 and lot 36, Sterita Park Q279 - one of the first sons offered in Australia by US sire Sydgen Enhance.
TFI Rural put together five bulls for its Southern Cross properties at Tintinara for a $12,600 average.
This included the highest price of the five spring 2019 drops and penultimate lot of the sale which they bought for $10,000.
Many of the South East and western Vic buyers who had not raised their hand for three quarters of the catalogue were finally able to get a look in late in the sale. Sixteen lots sold between $6000-$8000.
Stud principal Nanni DiGiorgio said the buoyancy of the cattle market and strength of eastern states sales last spring had given him hope of having a strong sale but their "best ever" result was a "bit overwhelming".
"If you are chasing a herd improver given the climate you have to be prepared to part with $12,000 to $15,000 and you only need two people that want that animal, that's why we have had a great day," he said.
"Having Legh Winser and family buying so many bulls certainly helped but having said that there was always an underbidder."
Mr DiGiorgio said "if they were there" he would consider putting a few more bulls in their 2022 sale to help those with lesser budgets continue to buy their genetics.
Nutrien stud stock's Gordon Wood and Richard Miller added up the torrent of bids.
Mr Wood said he expected "some heat" in the sale aware of some large volume orders but the result was beyond his expectations.
"Coming into it I was hopeful that we may have seen a $10,000 to $11,000 average here with 80 odd bulls but to hit $12,000 is a big increase on last year, but it is in line with what has happened in cattle prices, weaners particularly," he said.
Mr Miller heaped praise on the offering and said the catalogue was full of bulls with calving ease, high growth, positive fat, high eye muscle.
He said buyers also appreciated being able to buy bulls run only on dryland lucerne.
"The predictability and consistency of the cattle was what everyone was here for- you could have run a ruler over them and bought them with your eyes shut," he said.
"People who came here today wanting six to 10 bulls would have had 30 bulls selected and these were not all in the front end of the catalogue."
Mr Miller said another feature of Sterita Park's bulls was the balanced Breedplan figures which matched their phenotype.
"There are a lot of positive fat (figured) bulls here. For a two-year-old bull to come up to more than 900 kilograms off grass like they have done, that is where the data shows through," he said.
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