Gateway Farms Wagyu gross over a million

In the breakdown, 25 bulls sold to a top of $77,500, and averaged $28,382, 11 females sold to a top of $85,000, and averaged $34,227, and four semen packages sold to a top of $7000 a straw, and averaged $784/straw.

Selling as the second female of the day was the $85,000 top-priced heifer, Gateway P11 S0124, was purchased by GeneFlow, Tocumwal.

Keith Hay the chief executive officer of GeneFlow, an IVF Genetics company operating in Wagyu and Angus cattle, said he was looking for animals that were in the top one per cent for marble score and self-replacing index (SRI).

"Our current criteria for the Wagyu is over three plus in marble score and 300 plus in SRI so that heifer was over three and 300," he said.

"She was well inside the one per cent and any time we see those figures, that's what we look to buy.

"The heifer will be put into an IVF program and will stay there for about eight months to a year depending on her individual performance and productivity.

"That is kind of our insurance policy and then she will have a calf and when the calf is born, she will go in to another round of ET [embryo transfer]."

Related reading:

The We Pack FP00011 daughter was in the top one per cent of the breed for marble score (+3.2) and marble fineness (0.48).

Mr Hay also purchased two straws of Gateway F154 Gatekeeper S0024 for $5500 a straw, and plans to use it in his IVF programs over about 20 females using a half straw at a time.

"Using only a half or third of a straw at a time with so many females allows us to buy the dearer end of Wagyu semen and get good value over the whole," he said.

Coming in at a close second-top price was Gateway G113 S0016 sold for $82,500 to Synergy Wagyu, Spring City, Pennsylvania, USA.

Synergy's principal, Loren Ruth, said he purchased S0016 as he already had a 50pc ownership in two of her maternal brothers at Gateway.

"Those two bulls are two of the absolute elite Wagyu bulls in the world and we were excited to have an opportunity to purchase their sister," Mr Ruth said.

"She will be sent to a facility in Victoria where we will collect embryos from her and export to our farm in the US."

The 14-month-old Coates Itoshigenami G113 daughter was in the top 1pc for marble fineness with +0.43 and the top 5pc for marble score with +2.4.

Topping the bull section was Gateway Poll S0213P sold for $77,500 to Hidden Valley Wagyu, Wollongong.

The Poll Wagyu Phantom son was in the top 10pc for marble score (+2.0), and the top 15pc for marble fineness (+0.29).

Selling at only nine months of age, Hidden Valley Wagyu's Darren Anderson said he was a real standout and was the highest SRI-ranked homozygous polled bull in the world.

"The polled line is something I think the industry will go down in the future and the market for polled animals in the US is a huge market so I am looking to sell some straws over there and start out polled line in our herd," Mr Anderson said.

"The difficult thing with the polled line is trying to obtain growth, especially when you go to homo polled side of thing so with his positive mature cow growth and 600 days, and a fairly high marble score, he stood out to us."

The top-priced semen lot sold for $7000 per straw. It was for a package of two straws of Gateway G113 Guardian S0041 purchased by Arubial Wagyu, Condamine, Qld.

Gateway Farms CEO Peter Erasmus said he was overjoyed in the success of the first official Gateway Farms sale.

"The Gateway Prestige Wagyu sale will be held annually and next year there will be a big selection of all 4 groups of wagyu," Mr Erasmus said.

"Our aim is to be diverse in the industry and to offer a wide range of animals off each of the groups of wagyu.

"We are very excited about the polled breed and have some incredible animals in the pipeline.

"In the polled breed our aim is to supply breeders with homozygous polled bulls good enough to produce F1 [first-cross] calves with good marbling and eye muscle area. This will help with dehorning issues for some of the larger producers."

The sale was conducted by Elders and interfaced with Elite Livestock Auctions, with Lincoln McKinlay of Elders stud stock taking bids.