Heifer from the keeper pen tops Alumy Creek Angus female sale
A replacement female has made her way to the top of Alumy Creek Angus female sale, held online Friday February 28.
Initially, the top-price female Alumy Creek Applause U121 was planned to be a keeper, but it sold for $4250, purchased by Bernard Waters, Durn Vale Angus, Manimi Farming, Quinalow, Queensland.
The 19-month-old heifer,offered in the catalogue to replace her mother, Alumy Creek Applause R036, was one of five pregnancy-tested in-calf females struck by lightning and died in the Tenterfield storms in late January.
By the United States sire Ferguson Trailblazer 239E and PTIC to Woodhill Patent, Applause U121 ranked in the top 2 per cent of the breed for 200-day and 600-day weight estimated breeding values, with figures of +71 and + 161, respectively, while also recording a 400-day weight value of +119, placing her in the top 3pc.
She also ranked in the top 8pc for carcase weight with a value of +89, while having an Angus breeding index value of $242 - in the top 15pc - and an Angus breeding low feed cost index value of $409, in the top 13pc.
Buyer Bernard Waters said he had bought a number of females for the stud last year and was impressed by how the heifers had matured and performed for the operation's Angus stud, which is in its early stages.
The 242-hectare Darling Downs-based operation runs 50 stud females alongside an additional 150 commercial breeders, with the aim for the progeny to be sold into the feedlots within the area, as well as also purchasing cattle in to grow out to feedlot weights.
"We're looking for the depth of body in the animal, with the ability to grow out into a decent size and the temperament is very important for all our cattle," Mr Waters said.
"We studied the EBVs of all these cattle very hard and selected based on a combination of confirmation and data."
Mr Waters bought an additional nine females throughout the draft for an overall average of $3000.
Ben Brunkhorst, Sugarloaf, Queensland, was the volume buyer for the catalogue, purchasing 14 females for an average of $3000.
Alumy Creek stud co-principal Lisa Martin said there was a mix of new and repeat buyers active with females selling into Queensland and northern NSW.
Overall 29 of 59 females sold to a top of $4250 for an average of $3087.
The sale was conducted by Elders Glen Innes, with AuctionsPlus providing the online platform.
