Final bull sale for Yarram Park Herefords tops at $28,000

Hardly any seats were empty for the last bull sale of Yarram Park Herefords at Willaura on Monday.

Past and present clients, agents and onlookers all turned out to see the final offering of 58 Hereford bulls by the notable southwest Victorian breeders.

The sale sold 42 of the 58 bulls offered for an average of $8690 and a top price of $28,000.

Lot 2 Yarram Emperor was bought by Ironbark Hereford stud, Barraba, NSW, who are long-time friends and collaborators of the stud.

Hugh Spencer, Ironbark Herefords, was at the sale to purchase the top-priced bull.

"He was a really well put-together bull and he had some good numbers behind him," Mr Spencer said.

"He walks nice and stands nice and had plenty of weight in him."

The two year-old top-priced bull weighed in at 872 kilograms and had a scrotal circumference of 41 centimetres.

The top-priced bull was also horned which was not a deterrent at all to Mr Spencer who said Ironbark is a mostly horned stud.

Mr Spencer said Ironbark and Yarram Park have had a long history of collaboration.

His grandfather and Yarram Park founder John Baillieu brought Hereford bulls to Australia from Canada and have shared ownership over a number of sires.

"Yarram Park have a lot to do with the foundations of our cow herd," Mr Spencer said.

"This is the first time I've been here but Dad said I needed to go down.

"It's a sad day but we're happy we were able to get the bull."

Bulls sold to three states with a few headed into southeast South Australia with Benara Pastoral, Mt Gambier, SA.

Several bulls found homes in southern NSW included the three bulls purchased by Day Farms, 'Emu Park', Deniliquin, NSW.

Many bulls also headed to southeast Victoria in the Gippsland region.

The Follett family of Gembrae Ag at Nyora in Gippsland were among the southeast commercial breeders operating at the sale.

Yarram Park stud principal Antony Baillieu said normally the stud would sell the majority of their bulls locally but he said a lot of their usual local clients "were full up with bulls".

Mr Baillieu said while he was happy with the sale, it was a reflection of the extremely tough season experienced by the region.

"There's a lot of unknowns at the moment about the season and the markets and I think it's hard for farmers to go and optimistically invest in buying bulls at a high level," he said.

Mr Baillieu said while the day was sad, it was "a relief in some respects that it's over".

After 75 years of stud breeding, the family decided to disperse the stud for succession planning reasons.

"I'm 75 years young as far as I'm concerned but I've got to look at succession planning and my kids have their lives outside of the stud," Mr Baillieu said.

"A stud is not a passive investment," he said.

"It's something you've got to be heavily involved in and love doing."

Mr Baillieu said they had no plans to give up the family property which will now focus on the sheep side of their operations, with a potential avenue for a commercial cattle herd as well.

"Principally this place is a sheep operation so we'll continue to do that."