A STRONG commercial presence at Corey and Prue Ireland's annual Irelands Angus Autumn bull sale at Wagga Wagga last week helped to cement an 100 per cent clearance of the 47 bulls offered.
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In a year when clearance rates have been up and down across the eastern seaboard, a total clearance to a top of $10,500 to average $4766, was a solid achievement.
Stud principal Mr Ireland put the result down to a few new clients who bought on the day, and a big presence of Victorian buyers from the mountain calf areas of Omeo and Benambra.
"I have been selling bulls to a few of the mountain calf guys for a few years now.
This year was the first year they had calves go through the weaner sales and top the sales for a few clients," Mr Ireland said.
"There were a few people at those sales that saw what our cattle can do, so they came to the sale and ended up buying, which was fantastic."
Mr Ireland said the interest off the back of the results at the mountain calf sales helped set up his sale, along with the 68 registered bidders, where 29 individual buyers took home their genetics from the 47 lots offered.
The top bull, Irelands Hoff H362, was snapped up by long-time clients Greg and Phillip Hughes, Four O Eight Angus, Macksville, for $10,500.
Hoff H362 was a soft, easy doing son of Rennylea Edmund and from the high performing dam, Irelands Vicky Z15, which had produced sons to $16,000 and $20,000.
Greg Hughes said Hoff H362 was perfectly suited to their coastal environment, added extra punch for them as an outcross sire with the Edmund background, and he loved the maternal lines going back to the Vicky family.
Hoff recorded figures of +3.5 for birth weight, +104 for 600-day growth, positive for rib and rump, +4.7 for eye muscle area (EMA) and +3.7 intramuscular fat (IMF).
Landmark agent Peter Godbolt, Albury, secured Irelands Hidden H446, a stylish young 18-month-old calf by Raff Dynamite for $10,000 for Quaterway Angus stud, Scottsdale, Tasmania.
Hidden H446 was marked as a potential stud sire, also being from the Irelands Eclypta family, and having a solid spread of figures to +111 for 600-day growth, +3.9 EMA and +1.7 IMF, with a +5.3 birth weight.
David Hurley and his daughter Diana, Hurley Family Partnership, Dargo, Vic, bought the $9000 two-year-old son of Irelands Eldorado, Irelands Hamster H95, to run with the several other Irelands bulls they had bought during the past few years.
The Hurleys were part of the mountain calf contingent that came to the sale, which resulted in all five buyers from the high country taking home at least one new sire.
Louis and Sharon Pendergast, "Delvin Downs", Benambra, Vic, run one of the biggest weaner calf selling operations in the high country, selling 500 Angus and 500 Hereford calves a year at the mountain calf sales.
They bought four commercial bulls averaging $3313.
Mr Pendergast said he was looking to go to a 75 per cent Angus and 25pc Hereford split in his herd, after his Angus weaners made to $700 at the recent sales.
"I was chasing bulls with a fair bit of frame and bulls that will grow into a bull with size and good top lines," he said.
John Ross, trading as CJ Pendergast and Company, Omeo Station, Benambra, is following suit with his 800-cow herd, aiming to push his herd to 75pc Angus using Irelands bulls.
Mr Ross said the Irelands bulls put enormous top lines on his cattle, and the frame and mature bull size were the reasons he purchased two bulls.
Earlier that day the Ireland family ran a 400-head commercial Angus female sale, including females from their commercial operation, and females from their clients.
The 400 commercial females drew sporadic competition as buyers continued to look to the skies for rain, but the top lines of three- to six-year-old pregnancy-tested-in-calf (PTIC) Angus cows joined to Irelands bulls topped the sale at $1160.
Angus Ward, "Ulladulla", Holbrook, with his agent Tim Wright, Elders Holbrook, set to work buying a large percentage of the draft securing 114 mixed age PTIC females to a top of $990.
Mr Ward runs 800 cows, producing steers for the feedlots and has recently sold some cast-for-age cows and was looking to replenish numbers with some high quality young, productive females.
K.J. and G.J. Connley, Omeo, paid to $6000 for two bulls averaging $4500; Mitchell Investments, Oaks, Tasmania, bought two bulls for $7500 and $5500; while Mount Hugel Partnership, "Burnside", Grahamstown, averaged three at $3333, and Glengarry Pastoral, "Glengarry", Sandigo, bought two at $7000.
Rounding out the sale, Richard Wilton, "Nioka", Holbrook, bought three bulls for $3417 after securing a pen of commercial Angus females earlier that day in the commercial sale.
Elders and Landmark conducted the sale with Joe Wilks and Kevin Norris as the auctioneers.
