Qld order underpins Duck Island composite bull sale

A strong order from St George in Qld underpinned the online auction of Duck Island composite bulls last week.

Running from Tuesday to Friday last week on AuctionsPlus, the sale witnessed the purchase of nine bulls by new Landscape Beef Pty Ltd (Duck Island) client Douglas Grazing Pty Ltd, St George.

Overall, 14 of 27 composite bulls from the Keith-based stud sold to a top of $12,000 and averaged $5393.

While this was back on last year's result - where 24 of 29 bulls sold to $9500, averaging $6208 - Duck Island's Lesley Forwood considered it a good result when taking into account the tough season SA and western Vic has endured.

Also buying two bulls was Hugh McEachern, Injemira, Grassmere, Vic.

"Considering the season, we thought the sale wasn't too bad," Ms Forwood said.

"I think we'll sell a few more (privately) in coming weeks when people start thinking about buying elsewhere and putting bulls in."

The Duck Island bulls are predominantly an Angus/Simmental cross with a small dash of Poll Hereford.

"We're going to start putting a pure black Simmental and a pure black Angus over our AI heifers so that we're starting to reinvigorate our hybrid vigour and giving ourselves more variation," Ms Forwood said.

Leading the way in terms of price was lot 8 - Duck Island 23RQQ.

The homozygous black March 2023-drop bull was sired by Duck Island 18KKL and out of Duck Island RQQ, with a composition of 50.4 per cent Angus, 37.4pc Simmental and 11.4pc Poll Hereford.

It boasted an eye muscle area of 104 square centimetres, intramuscular fat measurement of +4.8, a P8 fat measurement of 13 millimetres and rib fat of 8mm.

"He had the best spread of figures - the best eye muscle (EMA), the best marbling," Ms Forwood said.

"He was an outstanding bull and we weren't surprised he was the top price."

The sale was conducted by PPHS.