Buyer reveals plans for 'best Wagyu heifer in Australia' after huge spend

It was an extremely successful sale result for buyers and vendors alike at the Marble High Wagyu sale, held at the Burke and Wills Hotel, Toowoomba, on Wednesday, August 20, with the top price heifer coming close to matching a record-breaking price.

HP Wagyu, Taroom, Sahara Park Wagyu, Garnet, Arubial Wagyu, Condamine, and Macquarie Wagyu, Leyburn offered lots at the sale.

It was 13-month-old heifer Arubial V0812, from Laird and Sonia Morgan, Arubial Wagyu, Condamine, that stole the show and sold for $350,000 to Keith Hay, GeneFlow Proprietary Limited, Deniliquin, NSW.

The price tag was only $50,000 shy of the national record for a Wagyu female of $400,000 paid at the Elite Wagyu Sale in Melbourne in 2022.

The 13-month-old heifer was sired by Arubial T1701 and out of Arubial T0717.

Mr Hay also purchased two additional heifers, Arubial V1556 and Arubial V0358, for $80,000 and $50,000, respectively, as well as four lots of semen from Arubial VO852 for $48,000 a straw, and an additional four lots from Arubial U1945 for $32,000 each.

It totallled a spend of $800,000 for Mr Hay or an average of $72,727 per lot. Slightly less than the more than $1.29 million he outlaid at the multi-vendor sale in 2023.

Of the 15 heifer lots offered at the 2025 sale, all sold for an average of $52,333.

Overall, the sale saw a 95 per cent clearance for all lots, including semen straws, for an average of $37,763 per lot and an overall sale gross of $2,265,750.

The fact the $350,000 heifer was in the top one per cent of her breed for her Breeder-Feeder Index ($716), marble score (+4.3) and marble fineness (+0.66) was a major purchasing decision for buyer Keith Hay.

"She is the highest EBV female by BFI that's been offered in Australia," he said.

"I'm lucky enough to have another heifer that is one point below her, which I bought at the Elite Wagyu sale.

"You could say that that heifer is the second-best heifer ever sold outside of Japan.

"Our goal is to produce bulls [from Arubial V0812], as well as females."

The three heifers purchased by Mr Hay were heading straight to Total Livestock Genetics, Camperdown, Vic and would be in embryo production within a fortnight.

Mr Hay founded GeneFlow six years ago as a genetics company run as a virtual farming enterprise; however, he now leases 14,666 acres [5935 hectares] over two properties, Pikedale North and Inverary, at Stanthorpe to serve as the new base of his Wagyu operation.

"[Pikedale North and Inverary] are our first real move into land," Mr Hay said.

"We were just virtual farming before that basically, on agistment, and now we've decided to make a base at Stanthorpe.

"We're trying to grow our numbers from doing probably 50 calves a year to probably close to 300 or 400 calves a year."

In addition to the outstanding heifer result, the bull and semen sales also yielded impressive figures.

There were 27 bulls on offer, all of which sold for an average of $38,889.

The top-priced bull, Arubial V1374, sold for $130,000 to G Morgan and Co, Myall Grove, Condamine.

The 14-month-old bull was sired by Arubial T1701 and out of Arubial T1513.

He was the third-highest bull in the breed for his marble fineness (+0.80), and was the highest-ranked bull in the sale for his F1 Terminal Index ($508).

Of the 43 semen lots on offer, 35 sold for an 81 per cent clearance and and an average of $12,307 per straw.

Bulk buyers at the sale included MCC Rural Agencies, Tenterfield, NSW, who purchased six head for an average of $11,000, and Spur Wagyu, Taroom, who also purchased six head for an average of $8667.

Founder and owner of Arubial Wagyu, Laird Morgan, said he was humbled by the day's results, particularly as the Wagyu market was in a challenging economic position.

"We're appreciative of everybody that have appreciated the genetics and all of the hard work we've put in over the last 10 years," he said.

"We've sort of trodden a path following the EBVs, and I'm so happy now that the EBVs have been verified with the carcase data, and the Wagyu public are starting to appreciate and support that.

"Our averages will be better this year than they were last year, and Wagyus are probably at the bottom of a bit of a cycle at the moment, so it's very pleasing to beat last year's average."

Particularly proud of his stud's top heifer price, Mr Morgan said she was a perfect example of what the stud aimed to produce.

"She is by far the best numbered heifer ever sold in Australia," he said.

"She excels in growth, she excels in milk, in maternal traits, she excels in her eye muscle area, and in her marbling.

"We're not trying to be the highest marbling or the highest growth individually, it's the balance of the BFI index that we really, really like, and that heifer is not just in the top one per cent, she'd be in the top 0.001 per cent."

• Selling agents: GDLand Ray White Livestock Dalby.