An Angus breeding program spanning many decades came to an end today when the Dance family cleared all 174 lots at their complete female herd dispersal sale at Glen Innes.
With David, Christine and Fergus Dance making the decision to move on to a new venture they cleared all 179 lots for an overall auction average of $4498 and top of $17,000.
In a further breakdown; 115 spring joined cows and calves averaged $5006, 23 autumn calving cows and heifers averaged $4445, 20 spring joined heifers averaged $3575, 12 autumn unjoined heifers averaged $1958, four spring weaner heifers averaged $2187 and five sires averaged $4700.
A large majority of the sale was secured online through AuctionsPlus due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, with interstate interest including successful purchases into Queensland. Bulk buyers secured lines of up to 20 cows.
The Dance family were amazed at the total clearance under such difficult circumstances.
"It was difficult to part with our lovely females, but having said that we were encouraged by the readiness of the buyers to take them home to continue breeding," they said.
The top price of $17,000 was paid for Dance Federation J101 who the Dance family labelled hands down the best autumn cow they had bred. Along with her and her young bull calf by Trowbridge BBB Powertool L11, she was secured by Boambee Angus, East Seaham.
Boambee Angus manager Jamie Grosser said it was the studs first time purchasing Dance genetics having heard of them throughout the show ring and within the Angus breed.
The complete stud dispersal sale was an opportunity to boost their own herd, he said, and they secured 14 cows and calves and three pregnancy tested in calf females in total as one of the volume buyers.
Their $17,000 purchase would breed on either naturally or using artificial insemination and join their herd of 500 breeders, which were retained during recent dry times.
"She is structurally sound, she is a deep bodied cow, she is our style of cow we are looking for and then she has got a beautiful baby bull calf on the ground that we were lucky enough to see last week," Mr Grosser said.
"She had a lot of her breeding that we were chasing and she is one of those Federation cows that is renowned in the Dance herd.
"Overall, all the lots that we bought, we were very happy with them."
The $17,000 seven-year-old female was by SAV Thunderbird 9061 and out of Dance Admiral G59 who was from Double D New Design V1035 Z13, which the Federation female line originated.
Z13 and her progeny had such an impact on the Dance herd it caused them to rethink their naming philosophy and subsequently name all her daughters under the Federation tag.
She was recently tested for genomics under the HD50K program with her growth figures improving markedly.
Dance Federation J101 was in the top 10 per cent of the breed's estimated breeding values for growth traits and retail beef yield, her first calf, Dance Comrade L4, was used extensively in the Dance herd with great success due to his ability to sire light calves that grew quickly and were heavily muscled.
Within the sale her progeny also sold successfully; Dance Federation M12 fetching $10,000 and Dance Federation N22 making $10,500.
In other solid results; the 18-month-old heifer Dance Docklands whom was set to be shown and sold at the Sydney Royal Show was secured for $7500.
The top price bull, Carabar Docklands L33, sold for $8000 and was by Carabar Docklands D62 out of Carabar Eclypta J26.
Volume buyers included I and J Burey in the New England, Kirby Johnstone at Roma, Bauhinia Park at Emerald, Department of Planning Industry and Environment, Heart Angus at Tamworth, Glen Morgan Angus at Llangothlin.
The Dance family held onto the majority of their bulls to allow them to grow out to their full potential and will be offered for sale later in the year.
The female dispersal sale was conducted by Colin Say and Co with Shad Bailey as auctioneer.
Read the full report in The Land next week.