Angus heifers sold to $60,000 at Circle 8

In all, all 50 "T" drop young heifers cleared on the day to a top of $60,000 and averaged $12,089, following on from the "S" drop sale in Spring last year, where two Angus breed records were broken.

The sale broke the mould of Angus female sales, offering the complete drop, giving buyers the opportunity to secure females that usually would not be for sale and high end pedigrees to enhance other stud programs.

The Rosebud female line certainly did that, with buyers chasing the highly productive family line to the top of $60,000.

Circle 8 Rosebud T170 topped the sale and was bought by Robert Mackenzie, Mackas Angus, Gloucester, for $60,000 and the second of the feature lots Circle 8 Rosebud T221, for $28,000.

The top heifer was sired by GB Fireball 672, while their second heifer went back to LD Capitalist 316 and were both exceptionally good looking heifers.

Robert Mackenzie said both heifers had great temperament, balance, structure and presented extremely well.

"We are in the business of producing high quality females that look aesthetically pleasing to our clients, but are functional, productive, fertile and backed by top end performance," he said.

He said, its cost them the same to produce a good looking female, as it did a bad one, other than the initial outlay, so he backs the initial spend to have those high quality, good looking females every day of the week and the heifers they bought from Circle 8 definitely give them that.

Mr Mackenzie, also paid $140,000 for the record breaking top priced unjoined Angus heifer at last Septembers Circle 8 Angus bull and female sale and the top bull at $55,000 in 2021, so he knows the program well.

Mr Mackenzie runs 4000 commercial Angus cows along side his stud operation and aims to transfer what they are buying at the top end through their females into the commercial herd, as the foundation of the commercial herd is paramount.

"We are selecting cattle that are more sustainable, with higher fertility, shorter gestation, better calving ease and faster growth, with females with great milking ability to encourage that faster growth, and the genetics we are buying are focused on animals that can do this" he said.

Mr Mackenzie said the fact Jeremy made the effort to come and spend a day to look around our operation and understand what we are trying to achieve and how he can help that journey, gives us a lot of faith in his program.

Laird Morgan, Arubial Pty Ltd, Condamine, paid to $35,000 for Circle 8 Rosebud T192, a Paratrooper daughter with an exceptional data set in a draft of eight heifers grossing $99,000 and averaging $12,375.

Anne Marie Barrow, Merlewood Angus, Mirboo North, Victoria, paid to $36,000 for Circle 8 Rosebud T211, a GB Fireball daughter with an IMF figure of +5.3, in a draft of four heifers, averaging $18,500.

Mrs Barrow said she had followed the Circle 8 program for a while now and loved the whole breeding philosophy behind the program.

The attraction for Mrs Barrow was the opportunity to select from the complete T drop and the chance to get those high quality Rosebud females, with the Fireball outcross.

"it is very rare to get an opportunity like this to fast track your genetics 30 years and get a piece of every thing that stands behind the Circle 8 brand, so we jumped in hard and got what we wanted, she said.

Ms Barrow said the heifers will go in a flush program later on to take full advantage of the genetics.

Bill and Judy McDonald, with their daughter Jacci Nautiyal, Lostock, paid to $20,000 for three heifers, as return buyers from last years sale, averaging $14,333.

Mr McDonald said they were aiming to breed up a pedigree of high class heifers and bulls to start their own stud operation and believed that the Circle 8 heifers were giving them that phenotype and performance they were looking for.

"We were chasing the Paratrooper daughters for their style and shape," he said.

When asked what was the main reason for coming back, Mr McDonald said it was the fact Jeremy was an exceptional stud breeder, with excellent customer service that is helping us to get to where we want to be and he is invested in our program.

Keith and Lisa Soames and their daughter Ginger, Warrington Angus, Warrington Station, Munni, bought five heifers, averaging $9200, off the back of securing two heifers at last years sale.

Ginger Soames said they were chasing growth and marbling to inject into their stud and commercial herd and Circle 8 gives us lots of that.

She said, our country is very soft and structure is paramount for us and the Circle 8 animals from this climate give us that great structure that can handle our conditions, as well as the added benefit of the similar tick areas, so the cattle suit better.

"These cattle have great temperament and are a pleasure to be around," she said.

Ms Soames said they sell a lot of cattle to Rangers Valley and the marbling needs to be right and at Circle 8 we get some of the best marling and growth genetics to hit these specs.

"Jeremy is amazing a very funny character and is invested in what we are doing which is great and it is worth coming every year for the hospitality and the brisket alone," she said.

Australian Country Choice, Morningside, Queensland, are a fully integrated supply chain secured and a client Jeremy has spent a lot of time with, bought two heifers at $20,000 and $8000 respectively.

Rounding out the sale Lachballin Family Trust, Cowra, averaged $7333 for three heifers, Keary Co Pty Ltd, Crookwell, bought three full sisters at $8667 and D & R Jennings, Ravenswood, Vic, loaded three at $6000.