Volume buyers from Tasmania, NSW, Victoria and Qld set the pace at Ironbark

Hugh and Isabella Spencer, Ironbark Herefords, Ange, Ada and Richard Boland, Nara Pastoral Holdings, Burnie, Tasmania, (rear) Rudi Hart, Hart Rural Barraba and (front) Scott Cooper, Elders Studstock, Gunnedah, and the $20,000 top-priced bull. Picture by Simon Chamberlain

More than half the bulls sold at Ironbark Herefords, Barraba, were bought by four volume buyers from Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria, and NSW.

Described by Ironbark co-principal, Adrian Spencer, as a "great" sale, 98 of the 110 bulls offered sold to a top of $20,000, averaging $9346. Three more bulls were sold after the auction.

The four key volume buyers were Nara Pastoral Holdings, Burnie, Tasmania; Eurombah Pastoral Company, Taroom, Queensland; Hicks Herefords, Running Creek, Victoria; and Australian Food and Agriculture, Boonoke and Wingadee Station, Deniliquin and Coonamble, respectively, securing 51 of the 98 that sold at auction.

The top-priced bull was bought by Nara Pastoral Holdings, with Richard Boland, his wife Ange and their daughter, Ada, who purchased 10 bulls in total, averaging $10,500. Of those, five were by HH Advance 0159H.

Mr Boland said Nara had been buying at Ironbark for 25 years, and their model of business incorporated Ironbark's feedlot operation, with the weaners being trucked across Bass Strait and back to Barraba for backgrounding and then finishing before entering the processors.

The sale topper Ironbark 0159H Advance V046, a 19-month-old, weighing 776 kilograms, with a scrotal circumference of 42 centimetres, an eye muscle area of 118 square centimetres and an intramuscular fat of 7.2 per cent.

Its data included the top five per cent for EMA at +6.9 and IMF of +2.

Mr Bolond said V046's dam was a proven female, and its data was a key attraction.

"Its weight gain, intramuscular fat measurements, both the scan and EBV, were among the highest in its age group," he said.

Mr Boland said each year the Nara breeder herd had been expanding by 10 to 15pc, and this year will join about 1600 breeders.

Calves are trucked at around 300kg to Ironbark for backgrounding and then finishing in the on-property feedlot, managed by Mr Spencer's daughter, Isabella.

"We ship the calves around 300kg as we can get more onto the truck," Mr Boland said, "and when they arrive, Adrian backgrounds them for a month or two before they enter the feedlot."

Richard, Lindsay and Angus Moffat, Eurombah Pastoral Company, Taroom, Qld, bought 12 bulls at the Ironbark sale. Picture by Simon Chamberlain

Another repeat volume buyer was the Moffat family, Richard, Lindsay and Angus, Eurombah Pastoral Company, Taroom, Qld, with 12 bulls to a top of $11,000, averaging $8000.

Richard Moffat said the plan had been to buy six bulls at this year's sale, but that was revised when the buying opportunity presented itself.

Mr Moffat described Eurombah as a vertically integrated beef operation with calves being grown out to 600kg Jap ox and and 580kg females for processing, and the cows are spayed as nine-year-olds and then finished for processing as well, spending about 12 weeks on grass to do so.

"We only sell what we breed and we've been doing the same thing for 50 years," Mr Moffat said.

Repeat buyer Hicks Herefords, Running Creek, Vic, bought nine bulls to a top of $9000, twice, averaging $7444.

Australian Food and Agriculture was the largest of the volume buyers with 20 bulls, including 13 to their Coonamble property, Wingadee, to a top of $10,000 four times, averaging $8384. Another seven to a top price of $11,000, averaging $9285 will go to the Deniliquin property, Boonoke.

Edlers Cameron Wilson with Jamie and Edwina Bishop, Bando Station, Mullaley, who bought four bulls to $18,000 at the sale. PIcture by Simon Chamberlain

Repeat buyers since 1973, Jamie and Edwina Bishop, Bando Station, Mullaley, bought the second top-priced bull in the sale, Ironbark Q141 Marshall U286 for $18,000.

Mr Bishop said Bando had been buying at Ironbark since 1973 and bought four bulls averaging $12,250.

A new volume buyer at Ironbark was RJ Anderson, Spoilbank Station, Longreach, Qld, buying through Elders Broken Hill, who bought five bulls to $10,000 twice, averaging $8600.

Lotus Herefords, Pinkett, via Glen Innes, paid $16,000 for Ironbark S659 Domino U150, while Highlands Herefords, Smithston, Tas, paid $17,000 for Ironbark 0159H Advance U151.

Heath and Dale White, Bundaleer, Barraba, acting for Piedmont Station, Barraba, bought three bulls for $12,000, $10,000 and $7000, while Kindon Station, Goondiwindi, Qld, bought two bulls for $16,000 and $15,000.

Kindon Station bought the $70,000 sale topper at last year's Ironbark sale.

Heath and Dale White, Bundaleer, Barraba, Steve Watkins, Avondale, Barraba and Leon Cummins, Pollock and Cummins, at the Ironbark sale.

Overall, there were 22 Advance 0159H sons catalogued. They averaged 750kg at 22 months with an EMA of 114sq cm and and IMF of 6.6pc.

The selling agents were Elders Stud Stock, Hart Rural Agencies, Nutrien Ag Solutions and George and Furhman. The auctioneers were Scott Cooper and Darren Perkins, and AuctionsPlus provided the online links.