Bowman Angus bull sale follows season trend with buyers selective at auction

Buyers were selective at Bowman Angus stud's annual on-property auction at Neerim South.

The stud offered 69 Angus bulls and sold 51, recording an average price of $7294 and hitting a top price of $17,000.

The average was slightly down on last year's autumn sale result, when 51 bulls averaged $7787.

Bowman stud principal Glenn Bowman said the result was "very reflective of the season".

"That seems to be the pattern following through most sales at the moment," Mr Bowman said.

"It's nothing a few inches of rain wouldn't help."

He said despite that, this year's line-up was "the best-presented lot of bulls" he had ever offered.

"We are constantly increasing the muscle content and trying to increase the performance data," he said.

"The science has proven if you've got the right estimated breeding values (EBVs), it will correlate to what's being killed at the other end."

He said like many producers across southern Australia, he had endured dry seasonal conditions.

"The bulls are prepared on a grass-based diet, with no pellets at all, and we've had them on vetch hay this year," he said.

"We prefer to keep it natural and grass-based so when they go to the next property they don't lose weight."

The top bull of the sale, Lot 31, was purchased by Damian Moore, Yarram, for $17,000.

Mr Moore said he had been buying bulls from Bowman for the last five to six years and they had been performing well in his herd of about 300 cows and calves.

He said he was looking for a couple of bulls for heifers, and walked away with two bulls from the sale.

He said the top bull, Bowman Paratrooper U10, had good figures and was very nicely muscled.

"He's got good intramuscular fat (IMF) and eye muscle area (EMA) and low birth weight and good growth weights," he said.

"He's got some lovely stretch about him."

He said the bull was good enough to "take a couple of straws out of" and that was what he planned to do.

The bull, who was sired by Millah Murrah Paratrooper P15 and out of Bowman Abigail R32, recorded EBVs of +3.1 kilograms birth weight, +60kg 200-day weight, +105kg 400-day weight, +126kg 600-day weight, +10.5 square centimetres EMA and +2.5 per cent IMF.

Ben Whiteley, Dryburgh Agriculture, Neerim Junction, bought four bulls at the sale and took a different approach to most years.

"All other times, I've picked bulls visually, but today, I picked them through their figures," he said.

"I picked my top 10 out of the catalogue and then went and looked at them, and funnily enough, the ones I had picked weren't the ones I would have picked based on looking at them, but I held my ground and stuck with the figures."

Mr Whiteley said he was particularly looking at birth weight, milk and IMF.

Elders Victorian stud stock manager Ross Milne said the sale followed the general trend of this year's autumn bull sales.

"Buyers were selective," he said.

"It has been a buyers' market the further we've got into the season."

Mr Milne said the bulls presented very well.

"They would have been as heavy as the stud has had them," he said.

"Buyers certainly had a good selection of bulls to choose from."

Mr Bowman said they had many return buyers from the local area and as far east as Omeo and down to King Island, Tas.