A LARGE crowd in person and online of repeat buyers saw stud records smashed at the autumn Moyle Pathfinder Angus sale in Gazette, Vic, on Wednesday last week.
Buyers from across three states bid against a strong local contingent of producers to push the top price to $50,000 and a sale average of $16,246 on a total clearance of 118 head.
The sale smashed the 2021 result when a total clearance of 104 bulls sold to $21,000, averaging $11,144.
Buyer of the top price bull, Pathfinder Lakewood R861, was Goolagong Angus stud principal Heath Tiller, Warnetown, who has been buying from Pathfinder since they started their own Angus stud six years ago.
The April 2020-drop bull weighed 1040 kilograms and was +10 square centimetres on eye muscle area and +146kg for 600-day growth.
Mr Tiller said he would use the bull over a mixture of heifers and cows.
"It's not often you get a bull with the sheer capacity, good feet and phenotype and the data to back it up," he said.
"I can't wait to get it home and put to use and get calves on the ground."
Pathfinder stud principal Nick Moyle said the top bull was a son of Kenny's Creek Intensity L123 and had moderate birth weight figures with plenty of growth and thickness.
"It's an easy doing bull with a huge rump. It'll go on and produce some fantastic females," he said.
Nutrien auctioneer Gordon Wood said the top price bull was phenotypically one of the best Angus bulls he had seen this year.
The bull had "very good, but not over the top, solid data".
"It was a great genetic package," he said.
Mr Wood said that even with a $16,000 average, there was some "real value particularly in the spring bulls".
"There were plenty of bulls making $8000 to $14,000, and commercially that's cheap these days," he said.
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Mr Wood said the Vic sale was just $200 ahead of the Pathfinder SA sale a week earlier in Naracoorte.
"They were very similar sales and it shows that the Pathfinder program is very commercially orientated, and focused," he said.
Two bulls came at the sale's second-highest $32,000 price with the first being lot 5 - Pathfinder Beastmode R64 - purchased by return clients David and Rob Gordon, Condah.
The February 2020-drop bull was by Baldridge Beast Mode and came with breeding values in the top 1 per cent for 200-day growth at +71kg, 400-day at +122kg and top 5pc for 600-day at +152kg.
The Gordons said the bull was correct with great structure.
The buyers also bought lot 25 - Pathfinder Phoenix R165 - which had a +11 EMA along with 400-day of +117 and 600-day of +152kg, for $24,000.
Lot 59 - Pathfinder Rock R321 by Rennylea R519 - also made $32,000, sold to Frank and Andis Sorraghan, Wagga Wagga, NSW, who paid the top price of $21,000 at the Pathfinder 2021 autumn sale.
This year's bull weighed 986kg and was catalogued as an "easy doing heifer bull", with figures of +58kg for 200-day growth, +114kg for 400-day and +152kg for 600-day.
Kerr Family Pastoral, Mount Schank, paid $27,000 for lot 4 - Pathfinder Newly R549, by Te Mania Newly, plus $22,000 for lot 10, a son of GAR Prophet, and $18,000 for lot 27, sired by Rennylea L519.
Alanvale Farms, Broadwater, paid to a top of $20,000 for a draft of 11 bulls.
