Kandanga Valley's 5th summer bull sale heats up with increased average

A crowd of buyers from all areas of Queensland braved the heat and humidity on Saturday morning at John and Roz Mercer's 5^th Summer Bull Sale, in the hope of securing a new Kandanga Valley sire.

A big year for the stud, having sold close to 200 Charolais and Charbray bulls across auctions and paddock sales, they finished off strongly on Saturday with 40 bulls selling for an average price of $7713.

This result bettered their previous average by $765 per head from the 4^th Summer Sale, held in January this year.

In a breakdown of the sale, 24 Charolais bulls sold for an average of $8063, while 16 Charbray bulls sold to average $7188 per head.

Of the 65 bulls that entered the ring during Saturday's sale, 40 sold for a clearance of 62 per cent.

Top price honours were awarded to a Charolais bull, Kandanga Valley Tennyson, who was knocked down for $16,000 to longtime return buyer, Lance Taylor, Mundubbera.

A 26-month-old son of Allednaw Prince, out of Kandanga Valley Nicolette, the homozygous polled sire weighed in at 820 kilograms with an EMA of 127 square centimetres, IMF of 5.2 per cent, and scrotal circumference of 40.5 centimetres, also measuring 10 and 7 millimetres respectively in P8 and rib fats.

Mr Taylor said he liked a lot of things about the top-priced sire, noting his "good figures and tidy underline," along with semen and morphology results of 85 and 87 per cent respectively, but it was the bull's fat measurements that sealed the deal.

"I'm having a bit of trouble with some of my Charolais bullocks not getting fat enough, and this bull had one of the best fat lines out of them all today," he said.

"I try to sell half of my cattle as feeders and half as bullocks or fat heifers, because they can suit any market then. If it gets really dry I can sell the whole lot as feeders, or if we get a good season I can keep them and fatten them."

Crediting the Charolais bulls for their crossbreeding abilities, Mr Taylor said the sale topper will go back over his herd of Santa and Braford cows.

"The Charolais cattle always do well, probably the best. We drafted cattle three days ago for feeders, and I was very happy with how heavy the Charolais cattle were; they were over the 500kg, so I could keep them and fatten them," he said.

"I've been buying Kandanga Valley bulls for probably 20 years and I've always been very happy with them."

Kandanga Valley stud principal John Mercer said he was pleased with the result, thanking both new and return buyers for coming out to the sale.

"I was very happy with the average price, we just probably ran out of buyers towards the end there," he said.

"It was always going to be a trial to sell 70 bulls at our Summer Sale, and I think we got out of it fairly well, considering the way the cattle market has been and the way the season has been up until the last month, and coming into the Christmas period.

"The bulls suffered a bit the last few weeks with the ten inches of rain on their backs, but they still lined up fairly well."

Mr Mercer described the top priced sire as "a lovely homozygous polled Charolais bull, with plenty of bone and a beautiful, masculine head."

"He had everything going for him and was probably a bull we could have used for ourselves in our stud, and he's going to a repeat client who always buys a top end bull when he comes over here to the sale," he said.

"The top end of the Charbrays also sold well, there was just a few of the younger, more immature bulls towards the end there that didn't sell, but we'll be looking to sell them out of the paddock."

Next year the Mercers hope to sell in excess of 250 bulls, with an emphasis on more paddock sales from their Moonie property.

"I think the cattle market next year is going to be red hot, and all we need is some follow up rain now," Mr Mercer said.

"We've had a beautiful start across a lot of Queensland, so if we can fill in the gaps and prop up the others, I think next year is going to be a really good year."

Volume buyers on the day included Kinbombi Station, Goomeri, who secured five bulls for an average of $7400, and Stuart Apel, Chinchilla, who outlaid $5833 per head for three bulls.

The sale was previously held at the start of the year with the January 2024 auction resulting in 17 of 27 Charolais bulls selling for a top $15,000 to average $7235 (60 per cent clearance), 13 of 21 Charbray bulls top $10,000 to average $6769 (66pc clearance), and five red Angus/Charolais top $9000 for an average $7200 (100pc clearance). That resulted in an overall average of $7057 across the 35 bulls sold.

• Selling agents: Nutrien and Shepherdson & Boyd, simulcast on Auctions Plus.