National records tumbled at the Thompson family’s Millah Murrah on-property Angus female sale near Bathurst last Thursday, where a new all-breeds auction benchmark was set.
The star was in-calf heifer, Millah Murrah Prue M4, which sold for a whopping $190,000, smashing the previous all-breeds female record held since 1990 by Baldrudgery Lisa, a Poll Hereford heifer bred by the Hodges family at Baldry.
Lisa was sold at the Sydney Royal Show auctions for $160,000. Another heifer at the same sale, Baldrudgery Sally Ann 60, also made $140,000.
However, Prue M4 wasn’t the only headline act behind Millah Murrah’s stratospheric results.
Pregnancy-tested-in-calf cow, Prue H112, broke the previous record for an Angus cow of $48,000 when knocked down to East West Angus, Bingara, for $54,000.
Also, the $13,709 average for 234 lots demolished the previous record for an Angus sale of $8494 for 260 lots at the Wattletop dispersal at Guyra in May this year.
The sale’s $3.208 million gross is also believed to be the largest single vendor result in history and the largest single day gross for any Australian stud sale.
Even auctioneer, Paul Dooley, Tamworth, set a record. Mr Dooley, who has handled many of the big NSW stud sales this year, sold 191 of the 234 lots for a gross of $2.669m, which is thought to be the largest single sale gross by one auctioneer in Australia.
Along with its new all-breeds record, Millah Murrah also holds the Angus bull record of $150,000 for Millah Murrah Kingdom, sold at its 2015 on-property sale.
Co-principal, Ross Thompson, said there had been a shift in how buyers valued females.
“It is good to see them being valued as they should be. Stud cattle are a long term investment,” he said.
“We feel the sale reflects the strong demand for our bulls over the past seven years and 50 years of dedication to maternal function. We thought the females on offer were simply as good as we could ever hope to produce.
“From an industry perspective, the sale underlined the seemingly endless horizon in demand for quality Angus cattle.
“Support from within the breed was enormous, with plenty of long-term buyers of Millah Murrah genetics operating in volume, like Heart Angus, Coffin Creek, Coolie, Mandayen in South Australia, Keringa in SA, and Cherylton, in Western Australia.”
The top all-breeds record, bull or female, of $300,000, is held by Brahman bull, Lancefield Burton Manso, sold at the Lancefield Brahmans 2006 on-property sale, held at Dululua, Queensland.