When a "rare find" walks into the sale ring at any auction in any breed, buyers can't help but dream and want in on the action.
Creating a whirlwind of excitement at last year's Dunoon Spring Angus Bull Sale in August was a bull that did just that, make people think of the future.
Dunoon Prime Minister P758 is a bull that turned heads offering a unique package of phenotype, type and figures, a combination of traits that sparked interest and had him named the $140,000 top-priced Angus bull and top-priced bull sold in New South Wales in 2020.
The elite sire in the making purchased by Jim and Jackie Wedge, Ascot Cattle, Warwick, Qld, the Bateman family, Gilmandyke Angus, Orange and the Burton Taylor family at Kenny's Creek Angus, Boorowa, set the season high as several stud buyers went toe-to-toe before the syndicate laid the final blow to ABS Australia who was the underbidder.
A son of Rennylea L508 and out of Dunoon Japara M1008, he weighed 1012 kilograms as a two-year-old and ranks in the top 10 per cent or above for all Angus indexes, carcase weight, gestation length, foot claw and scrotal size, and top 15pc or higher for eye muscle area, intramuscular fat and all growth traits.
Not long after being knocked down for the significant $140,000 figure at the Harbison family's sale, Prime Minister P758 went into collection to allow him to be used in spring joining programs.
New Zealand rights in the bull were snapped up by the Kjestrup family of KayJay Angus, Masterton, NZ who used the bull lightly and will expect the first calves in their country in spring.
Interest in the bull was kept restricted at first, with only a limited number of semen packages sold in Australia for the spring joining period.
Marketing the bull privately, the syndicate has now released more semen to the open market with in total 1077 doses of semen in Prime Minister P758 sold to 13 studs across the country as of the end of May.
Ascot Cattle's Jim Wedge said the upcoming sire was a rare find in the Angus breed, being a bull that had phenotype and muscling in a single package and estimated breeding values that our markets are looking for.
"He is a rare find, combining good carcase data, great EBVs for carcase and across the board which is important in any breed, particularly Angus," Mr Wedge said.
"That combined with tremendous physicality and a very correct phenotype, which is sometimes hard to get - you either have really good EBVs or really good type, but he puts it all together.
"When bulls like him come up, which they rarely do, I do not like to miss them."
The Warwick based Ascot stud has the full walking rights to the bull, meaning Prime Minister P758 will live out his days in Queensland going between the Wedge's property and the Ced Wise Artificial Breeding Services facility at Glen Aplin.
Mr Wedge said they used the bull to join and back up around 40 cows.
"His first calves should be August born, spring-drop calves."
At the Orange based Gilmandyke Angus stud 500 doses of semen were used in an artificial insemination (AI) program within their commercial herd and 200 within the stud.
On top of that 100 embryos have been collected from their elite donors and implanted in recipient cows that are sired by Prime Minister P758.
Gilmandyke expects the first calves in early spring, and will offer a number of females pregnancy-tested-in-calf (PTIC) to the $140,000 sire in their August sale.
Looking to the future with premiums becoming available and feedlot buyers chasing carcase traits, Gilmandyke general manager Wade Peatman said they want to be on the front foot, and the Prime Minister P758 bull will contribute to meeting market demands.
"As feedlot demand for carcase traits (including yield and intramuscular fat) becomes more important, we want to ensure we are ticking the boxes. So our clients can have confidence that the bulls they purchase will enable them to receive premiums when they become available," Mr Peatman said.
"This bull was purchased to help us address the growing demands in this area, and for the flow on to our clients, to provide them with the opportunity to capitalise on premiums that are available.
"As carcase traits become more important in the breed, this is the best bull we could find that is phenotypically there with a set of numbers that match."
Kenny's Creek Angus principal Sam Burton Taylor said they had joined around 400 females to Prime Minister P758 who described as a class above everything else they saw throughout last year.
The Harbison family of Dunoon who bred Prime Minister P758 said they did not use the bull before he sold, but retained semen that was used last spring.
"Calves will hit the ground mid to late-July," Jock Harbison said.
Bull Oak Well Angus made the announcement on May 30 via its Facebook page that the first calf sired by Prime Minister P758 had been born on their Pinnaroo, SA based property.
- This story appeared in print in The Land's Beef Directory on June 24.
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