AN outstanding success for Ewen and Marg McLeish on Thursday when all 35 of their Outwest Angus bulls cleared at auction for an average of $5714.
Top money at $11,000 was paid for Lot 11, Outwest LDC Panther P90, sired by LD Capitalist and from an Outest BK Princess dam by Te Mania Berkley B1.
Buyer, Rob Wythes, Inverary, Narromine, also paid $6500 for a son of Deer Valley Patriot 3222 with both to join a new commercial herd Mr Wythes has recently put together after drought forced him to sell all his original herd which he had been breeding for 46 years - the last consignment in January.
"It was hard to let them go, but it was just dust here by then," Mr Wythes said.
"But then one final dust storm in mid-January, and by mid-February the paddocks were wet and green."
Mr Wythes had been a Murray Grey breeder and slowly began breeding up to Angus during the past 10 years.
He bought 62 Angus cows aged from three to seven years from the Wellington district and another 35 from Guyra during the past two months and decided on buying the two bulls - the top for his low birthweight calving ease figures and a "bit of performance" with Breedplan estimated breeding values (EBVs).
The first bull into the saleraing, Outwest BB P801 by Baldridge Bronc, sold at $10,000 to nearby neighbour M Mallon.
Kevin Keech of Narran Lake Pastoral Company, between Walgett and Brewarrina, outlaid an average 5167 for nine bulls for the family's large herd of 3000 Angus and Charolais breeders and their crosses.
He's been buying Outwest bulls for some years as he believes his country is pretty hard on cattle.
"So you need locally-bred bulls to survive our country and these do well for us," Mr Keech said.
When asked that nine bulls was quite a truckload, Mr Keech said he had bought 24 bulls from the stud only recently and his sale purchases made up the numbers.
Buzz and Pete Pulver of Hereford Park, Nyngan, bought two bulls including the $8000 Outwest Patonga P26 sired by Blackout IG Jonas J1, and $5500 for a CRA Bextor son.
The Pulbers run 300 Santa Gertrudis breeders in an Angus crossbreeding program on their farming country and this year sold their steers as weaners.
In normal years they would grow out their steers to 400 to 450 kilograms for feedlots.
The sale was conducted by Elders, Coonamble, with Lincoln McKinlay the auctioneer.