Trans Tasman partnership makes Fancy find in Days' mature cow dispersal

A nine-year-old Poll Hereford cow stole the limelight at Days Whiteface stud's mature cow dispersal, knocked down to a Trans Tasman partnership for the sale high of $17,000.

This was easily the highest-priced stud Poll Hereford female sold at auction in Australia in the past year.

As she entered the ring Nutrien auctioneer Gordon Wood said lot 64, Days Fancy L180 was his "pick of the sale" and "sound as a bell".

Plenty of others agreed including New Zealand stud Matariki, Kaikoura, and Allendale stud, Bordertown, who together put in the winning bid for the daughter of Injemira Cavalier G032.

She was in calf to Days Landlord T064.

Matariki stud's Jack Murray said they had come in search of a new elite cow family and found an outstanding proven matron.

"She is beautifully put together, she is an older cow but she doesn't look like she has aged a day," he said.

"We saw a cracking son of hers in the paddock yesterday when we were looking at the bulls."

Allendale stud's Alastair Day was also taken with Fancy L180 for her "balance and correctness" and said she had bred several impressive sale bulls and had two heifers retained by Days' stud.

"Hopefully we will get some embryos from her and send some to New Zealand and keep some here," Alastair said.

The NZ stud's major connection with the Day families in the past was being one of the studs that owned the New Zealand semen marketing rights to the influential bull, Allendale National W168z.

Pushing them all the way was commercial breeder Norm Smith, Furner, who bought one of her sons a few years ago for $14,000 and was excited about the potential of her in-utero calf.

The Matariki and Allendale studs also combined to buy another female from the Fancy family, Days Fancy Q174, for $12,000.

The Days Godfather N022 daughter - which was a 2019 drop - had an exceptional eye muscle area figure of +7.9 - in the top 1pc of the breed.

The sale which featured all of Days Whiteface stud's females which were 2021 drop and older was the first opportunity breeders had to buy 75 years of breeding from the "heart of the herd".

They made the most of it, with 63 of 74 PTIC females offered by Lachy and Lou Day averaging $5064.

Jason Holdsworth, Yelbeni, WA, who bought several lots in the recent Yarram Park dispersal sale added to this with seven females including two of the stud's top ET donor females.

His highest-priced buy was lot 10, Days Fancy S157, which made $9000.

Long-time bull clients Senior Park Props, Senior, led the local support with six females for a $4500 average.

Online bidding was a big part of the sale's success including five females which are Tas bound after being bought by Frost Brothers, Oatlands, for a $3200 average.

After buying a few cows with calves at the Spring Run dispersal last year to establish his Winklewood Hereford stud at Mount Gambier, Geoffrey Wood said he came looking for more foundation females.

He picked up five Days Whiteface females for a $3900 average.

"You couldn't go wrong here, anything you bought was going to be good," Mr Wood said.

Lachy Day said an increase in their AI and ET programs and high conception rates in their young cows had made the dispersal of their older cows possible.

"Somehow in a pretty ordinary year we have managed to get 74 out of 79 first calvers in calf and with the faith we have in our young cows to drive our progression with industry-relevant genetics we thought we could hold this sale," he said.

Lachy said it was thrilling for their cows to sell to so many geographical areas from WA to Tas and Qld.

"We will be able to see those cows perform in other people's programs," he said.

Elders stud stock auctioneer Ross Milne said the sale was "on expectation" and described the females as "good sound cattle with good data".

"They were well appreciated by a lot of states which is a testament to Lachy and Lou and the program, he said.

"It has been one of the more successful programs in the Poll Hereford breed in recent times and a lot of that stems back from the good old Allendale blood."

Elders and Nutrien were joint selling agents.