Ronelle Park has sold two bulls to the top price of $10,000 at the NSW Shorthorns 34th Spring Fling Bull Sale.
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The pair of bulls were part of the multi-vendor sale at the Tamworth Regional Livestock Exchange (TRLX) where 19 of 45 bulls sold at auction to an average of $6684 on Thursday, July 27, 2023.
Another two bulls sold privately after the sale.
Mother and son, Janelle Johnstone, stud principal of Ronelle Park, Lyndhurst, and Trent Johnstone, stud principal of Trojon, Lyndhurst, work closely alongside each other and sold most of their bulls from their respective studs.
Trojon sold two of three lots to a top of $8000 and an average of $7500.
Ronelle Park sold all four of its lots on offer to the sale top of $10,000 and an average of $8000.
"We've been coming to this sale every year. We had quite a good year last year and this year was still pretty good for us really. We sold six out of seven so that was pretty solid," Mr Johnstone said.
The top-priced bulls were Ronelle Park Schnapps and Ronelle Park Storm.
Schnapps, by Southern Cross Lonestar and out of Ronelle Park Nandi, was sold to the Williamsons, Guyra, who are repeat clients of the Johnstones.
"I don't know how many [bulls] we've sold them over the years - a lot," Mr Johnstone, who was happy to have had a mix of new and repeat clients at the sale, said of the Williamsons.
The bull weighed 840 kilograms and registered an eye muscle area (EMA) of 129 square centimetres, an intramuscular fat figure (IMF) of 6.1 per cent and rump and rib scans of 19 and 11 millimetres, respectively.
The other top priced bull, Storm, weighed 794kg and registered an EMA of 121sq/cm, an IMF of 7.3pc and rump and rib scans of 19mm and 12mm, respectively.
The bull, by Southern Cross Lonestar and out of Ronelle Park Queen K453, was bought by Bruce Schwartz, The Ponds Farming Co, Dorrigo.
Mr Schwartz has been a repeat buyer at the spring fling sale but a first-time buyer from Ronelle Park.
NSW Shorthorns Association president Matthew Walker said it was "definitely a buyer's market" at the moment and thanked everyone that supported the sale.
"It was a quality lineup of bulls and people selected the bulls that they decided fitted their program," he said.
"There was an opportunity there for people to step in and upgrade the quality of their cattle at a very realistic price."
The sale was run by Elders Tamworth and Elite Livestock Auctions provided the online interface.