THE first progeny of Australia's most expensive yearling bull have hit the ground, with thousands more expected in the coming months and producers saying they are eager to see how they develop.
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He was bought by a syndicate of NSW and Victorian buyers consisting of Gilmandyke Angus, Orange, Dunoon Angus, Holbrook, Knowla Livestock, Moppy and Kelly Angus, Yea, Vic.
Sired by GAR Momentum and out of Lawsons' Judd P4005, the now two-year-old bull was described as a breed changing sire prospect with phenotype, balance, temperament and an exciting data set by Vince Rheinberger, Boorowa, who runs a cooperator herd for Lawsons.
THOUSANDS OF CALVES EXPECTED
The first calves sired by the industry-leading bull were born at Kelly Angus at Yea, Victoria in late June/early July.
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Gilmandyke Angus, Orange, welcomed its first calves in mid-July with stud manager Peter McNamara saying in total the stud is expecting around 80 calves by Rocky R4010 in total this spring.
"To date we have had 50 commercial calves and 40 stud calves (by Rocky), with another 40 expected," Mr McNamara said.
"They have been small born, with no calving difficulties. We haven't pulled one calf yet. They have a nice skin to them and good balance.
"We single sire mated him to all the spring R-drop heifers in the stud, and selectively mated him to some of the mature stud cows. We selected on phenotype, and we utilised his carcase numbers over some females that needed a bit of a boost there, particularly with marbling.
"He was also used within the commercial herd to add another sire group to reference performance data against our own Gilmandyke-bred bulls."
Gilmandyke is looking to AI about 400-500 commercial females to Rocky R4010 this year, to create a larger contemporary group to get more performance data to compare against their own home-bred sires Mr McNamara said, which allows them to gauge how bulls are performing on a large commercial scale.
Knowla Livestock used him over bigger cows that needed muscle shape and natural thickness. The stud sold a heifer, Knowla Designer R102 due to calve to Rocky R4010, for the top price of $32,000 to Shayne Clark, Fairview, Scone.
SEMEN SALES BOOM
Rocky R4010 has been marketed through Jack Laurie of Australian semen company Breeder Genetics, and sales have been tracking really well.
Mr Laurie, also of Knowla Livestock, Moppy, said Rocky R4010 was back in collection after a small stint at Gilmandyke covering autumn-calving cows.
"From March to May he had a break, out with cows working, and now he is back at Holbrook Breeders," he said.
"Semen has been used extensively in AI [artificial insemination] and ET [embryo transfer] programs.
"Our contracts state we can't release how many units have been sold to the media, but I can say that everyone's investment has been paid, with strong use in both stud and commercial herds.
"On average there could be anywhere from 1200-1500 calves born by him within the next six months."
WHAT MAKES HIM UNIQUE TO INDUSTRY
The overall combination of phenotype and carcase data that Rocky R4010 offers is so hard to find within industry Mr McNamara said, making him a credible bull to use.
Mr Laurie said commercial herds were firstly drawn into using Rocky for his data set, but then after they physically look at the bull they "use him every time".
"I think it has been a long time since we've had a bull with that level of data have a desirable phenotype," he said. "The combination of data and phenotype; to be on a 'top of the tree for data' bull and still look the way he does is pretty special.
"The cow he is out of is also exceptional, and the strength of the maternal line got me over the line on the bull."
Boasting an intramuscular fat figure of +5.5 that ranks him in the top 1pc of the breed, he was also ranked in the top 1pc for Angus Breeding Index ($281), and within the top 5pc for eye muscle area (+11.2). All his selection indexes are within the top 6pc, and at least five other traits are ranked top 20pc.
Harry Lawson of Lawsons Angus said Rocky R4010 was one of the unique bulls that rose to the top himself, combining figures, nine generations of artificial insemination sires and an elite dam.
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Over the spring bull and ram sale season The Land will be looking back at the sires which have made headlines selling for in excess of $100,000, writing themselves into the history books. The stories will provide a deep dive into where are they now, how their first progeny looking and what is next for the industry-leading individuals.
In the August 18 edition of The Land, the series featured Lawsons Rocky R4010 the $130,000 Australian all breeds record-top priced yearling bull.
Be sure to keep an eye out for the future stories including the $160,000 Australian record top-priced Hereford bull, Injemira Robert Redford Q287, in the August 25 edition.
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