SOUTH Australian purchasers dominated the buying field at the Polldale Shorthorn stud's inaugural on-property bull sale at Dubbo on Tuesday, where a full clearance was achieved.
The Williams family were extremely happy with the support shown, the top price and average at their first on-farm auction, which included a total of 40 bulls sold to a top of $32,000 and average of $11,325.
In the breakdown, 15 senior bulls topped at $22,000, twice, and averaged $12,133, while 18 junior bulls sold to the $32,000 sale top and averaged $12,333. Seven commercial bulls topped at $10,000 and averaged $7000.
Belmore Shorthorn stud, Naracoorte, bought the $32,000 sale-topper, Polldale Rawhide, which was described as a "stud sire".
A 22-month-old homozygous polled son of Royalla Ultimate N176 out of donor female Poilldale Princess 14th, a daughter of Ronelle Park Hurricane H242, he weighed 888 kilograms with a 39 centimetre scrotal circumference.
Belmore stud principal Andy Withers said he was a complete, fault free bull which he had inspected in June prior to the Dubbo Shorthorn National.
"I think his completeness caught my eye. The lovely red colour, he has wonderful presence and extreme structural correctness," Mr Withers said. "One bloke told me he is the best bull he had seen all year."
"We have previously purchased Polldale Keeper about eight years ago and he did a really good job for us.
"I went out the day before Dubbo, inspected the bulls and was impressed by the evenness and thought they were a really good group."
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A breed elite when it came to expected progeny differences (EPDs), he ranked in the top one per cent of the breed for All Purpose $Index (API), marbling, fat, rib eye area and carcase weight.
"We certainly looking for a few traits; low birthweight, and the (API) Index was very high which is quite important, coupled with good carcase traits. We were impressed by all that but it's not the only reason you buy bull.
"The figures back up what you see physically so it all matched up well.
"We will collect some semen before he is put to work in four weeks' time, as insurance and as we have had enquiry for some semen."
Also buying out of South Australia was regular repeat buyers Richard and Jane Gould of Cortina Pastoral, Lucindale, who secured both of the $22,000 equal second-top priced bulls.
The first was the lead bull in the sale, Polldale Roger, another 967kg son of Royalla Ultimate N176, which ranked in the top 2pc for rib eye area and top 15pc for carcase weight and yield grade.
Polldale Rember also sold for $22,000 to Cortina Pastoral. He was a two-year-old son of Polldale Nasty N28 which weighed 915kg and ranked in the top 10pc for weaning weight and fat.
In all, Cortina Pastoral averaged $17,333 across the three bulls they bought.
Also taking home multiple bulls were Terry Ashcroft, Nullo Park, Rylstone, who purchased six bulls including three for Graham Corbett, and Tony Barton, Cooinda, Gundagai, which purchased four at a $12,500 average.
It was also a full clearance of the 36 commercial Shorthorn females offered.
An AuctionsPlus buyer through Elders Barham purchased both pens of Shorthorn cows and calves (12 units total) to a top of $5000 a head, to average $4550/hd.
Twelve pregnancy-tested-in-calf (PTIC) heifers sold for $3000 apiece, with a pen of six sold to Beckom-based buyers through Quade Moncrieff Livestock and another pen of six sold to Willis Bros Farming, Yerong Creek.
Unjoined Shorthorn heifers averaged $2225/head and sold to a top of $2300/head for a pen of six purchased by Andrew Devlin through Ray White Rural Dubbo.
Selling agents were Nutrien and Elders, with guest auctioneer Paul Dooley.
