The next big beef sires: hear from semen providers on their top bulls

Both domestic and international bulls feature as the most popular for Australian beef enterprises over the last 12 months, with some semen providers selling out in certain sires due to strong demand.

• This article is the first in a three-part series about beef semen providers, including the bulls in demand, buying trends, and the processes in identifying the top sires.
  

Genetics Australia beef product manager Damien Thomson said demand was "rampant" for the US sire, Baldridge Grindstone, who sold out over the autumn. The bull's low birthweight and high growth traits made him attractive to use on commercial heifers.

The domestic sire, Allendale True Blue T325, had also been used extensively over the last year, and Genetics Australia offered male and female sexed semen, as well as frozen and fresh programs.

The bull ranked well for intramuscular fat as well as net feed intake, and was also suitable for heifers.

"We're certainly involved in a couple of supply chains that are using him to breed their female Angus herd, and then they're actually crossing those Angus females with Wagyu to produce F1s for their own feedlot," he said.

"That's a very specific application of using female sex semen."

Other notable sires included Millah Murrah Tiny Dancer T438, who sold for $70,000 at the stud's 2024 sale, and Peak Draft Pick, a bull that ranked in the top one to five per cent for gestation length, calving ease daughters, 200-, 400- and 600-day growth, carcase weight, eye muscle area, IMF, and every $index.

Mr Thomson said Angus bulls made up about 80pc of the company's business, but they also had interest in the Wagyu bull, Yulong Trifecta T0030.

"He's essentially the perfect bull for producing that F1, Angus/Wagyu feeder steer," Mr Thomson said.

"We called him Trifecta because he's he's got the growth, yield, and quality in the carcase."

A homozygous polled Charolais bull, Venturon The Stig T42, was also popular.

As well as displaying calving ease traits, the bull also had exceptionally good foot structure, Mr Thomson said.

Fletch Kelly, ABS Australia, said the company's top three sires were all Angus.

The domestic sire, Dunoon Sunstone, which sold to Ben Nevis at Walcha in 2023, was ABS' top selling bull for the last 12 months. Mr Kelly said the Dunoon Prime Minister P758 son ticked plenty of boxes.

"He's a bull that obviously blends a really nice pedigree with great phenotype, excellent feet, and pretty much data to die for across the board," he said.

The two US sires, Woodhill Comstock and the $US600,000 Basin Jameson, were sought after by seedstock operations.

"Both of them have excellent data and they've converted really well in their Australian EBVs, so they have really good growth, calving ease, excellent carcase data and good structural data," he said.

"They're from quite well-known herds and they're actually really good-looking bulls. So phenotypically they tick a lot of boxes too.

"They breed with a lot of muscle, a lot of softness, so producers can get a very good type of animal which is important, particularly if you're selling bulls, but they also get good data coming through in those progeny as well."

ABS would also offer two new sires in FHCC Majority and Lucchese, both of which were inspected in the US recently and had an excellent data spread, combined with phenotype.

Mr Kelly said ABS also had ongoing demand for the $160,000 Poll Hereford, Injemira Robert Redford, but were also seeing plenty of interest in a newer bull, Injemira Northam.

"We're seeing quite a few customers using Hereford bulls over their commercial Angus cows to create the black baldy.

"And we've seen quite an increase in Hereford commercial AI."

In Wagyus, Arubial Genjiro Jr T1821 and Arubial United P0342 were proving the most popular in both domestic and export markets, he said.

Jack Laurie, Breeder Genetics, said there were two sires he offered that were selling to particularly strong demand, including Cluden Newry Uppercut U15, by Dunoon Recharge R102 and from Cluden Newry S233, which sold for $275,000 earlier in the year to McKenzie Agriculture.

The US sire Basin Keystone 2021, by Ezar Step Up 9178, was also attracting a lot of interest. The bull sold for $US202,500 in 2023.

Mr Laurie said Uppercut was a bigger-framed bull while Keystone was more moderate, but both presented with balanced data and were not extreme in any trait.

Breeder Genetics would also offer another American sire in Henke Honcho, who was identified during a recent trip to the US.

While Keystone and Uppercut were selling more to seedstock operations, Mr Laurie said he was seeing increased demand from commercial clients.

Commercial operators were prepared to wait and see how a bull performed, he said.

"They are probably looking at accuracy just as much, if not more," he said.

"They're not necessarily chasing the latest and greatest, they're wanting to use a bull to do a job and be really proven to do that specific job."