PTIC heifers in calf to $225,000 Iceman make $4300 at Gloucester sale

A yarding of 620 cows with calves, PTIC cows and heifers, and unjoined heifers averaged $1752.

There were 38 cows with calves that sold from $2900 to a high of $4000, averaging $3223, while 72 cows ranged in price from $1700 to $3100 for a $2451 average.

The largest section of the yarding included 309 unjoined heifers, ranging in price from $650 to $1800, averaging $1158.

The PTIC heifers topped at $4300 and were priced from $1600, averaging $2138.

There were 54 registered buyers in the Gloucester saleyards, and they provided the buyer strength of the sale with cattle heading for herds at Dungog, Wagga Wagga, Gresford, Seaham, Nundle, and Merriwa.

Online, there was plenty of interest, with 150 different observers logging in and five active bidders. Four lots were bought, with two pens each going to Wagga Wagga and Gresford.

Bret Sutherland, Sutherland Cattle Company, Orange Grove, Martins Creek, bought the top-priced pen of six, rising two-year-old PTIC heifers in calf to Iceman for $4300.

With an average weight of 530 kilograms and sired by bulls from Knowla, Coolie, Curracabark and Sugarloaf Angus studs, the heifers will be introduced to the Sutherland herd to boost genetics, Macka's Beef principal, Robert MacKenzie said.

Jamie Edmonds, manager of Coolie Angus, Merriwa, used the sale to continue to rebuild numbers in a herd that had been restricted by the drought in 2019 and a severe dry spell in the Upper Hunter earlier last year.

Coolie Angus bought 49 cows aged three to four years, with calves for an average of $2600 and 63 unjoined heifers to a top of $1100 for 22 averaging $1050.

"It's not easy to find big lines of vendor-bred cattle, and this sale was a great opportunity for us to get a look at some big lines we could pick through," Mr Edmonds said.

"It's been a tough year for us; it could have been tougher than 2018/19."

The heifers Coolie bought had a mix of Knowla, Coolie, Sugarloaf and Curracabark genetics.

Jamie Grosser, acting for Boambee Angus, East Seaham, was a volume buyer with 14 PTIC heifers at $2500 and a pen of 21 unjoined heifers at $1650.

Mr Grosser said selecting females would help improve the herd. In 2023, at the inaugural Macka's Beef female sale, he bought a pen of PTIC heifers and a pen of cows with calves.

Mr MacKenzie said Boambee had been a big supporter of Macka's Beef and was developing a line of cows that will be dropping Iceman-sired calves later in the year.

The Weemala Group, Fosterton, bought 15 PTIC heifers for $2600, 14 for $2400, and a pen of 21 heifers for $1800.

Travis Crouch, who manages a property for Brett Lewis, Lewney, Dungog, bought a pen of 12 PTIC heifers for $1900, 14 for $2200 and 10 for $2000.

Scott Bremner, McCulloch Agencies, Tamworth, bought 60 unjoined heifers for a Nundle district client averaging $1200 that will be joined in June for a spring calving.

Mr MacKenzie said while he was nervous prior to the sale he was delighted with the result.

"It's a big ask selling nearly 700 vendor-bred females, and the market is a little bit tough," he said.

"The amount of people that were here today was encouraging and very humbling to have them supporting our genetics and what we're doing.

"We're happy today that the prices we got was exceptional. We believe they [the buyers] got value for money. Because the genetic makeup of the females here today were exceptional and that shows the commitment from our pastoral staff from the front gate to the back gate.

"And I believe that's why the cattle sold so well."

The selling agents were Bowe and Lidbury, Maitland, with Rodney McDonald as the auctioneer.