Dryburgh Angus buys nine Bowman bulls as it makes a move to stud breeding
Bulls bought from Bowman Angus stud's annual spring bull sale at Neerim South will be staying in Gippsland paddocks.
The stud offered 33 Angus bulls and sold 23, recording an average price of $7565, compared to this year's autumn bull sale in March, where 51 bulls were sold for an average of $7294.
Two bulls, lots 8 and 19, sold for the top price of $14,000 to Dryburgh Angus, Neerim Junction, who also bought seven other bulls.
Most of the bulls will be staying local within Gippsland, with the Gilmore family, Benambra, buying the second-best-selling bull for $11,000.
Ben Whiteley, Dryburgh Angus, who runs a commercial herd of 850 Angus cows over 320 hectares, said he had recently entered into the stud world and had been buying bulls based on data.
"The first Bowman bull sale I came to, I needed bulls for a herd of about 450 breeders, so we set out to buy bulls for a budget of $6000," he said.
"But now we're getting a bit serious, and we've registered Dryburgh Angus with Angus Australia, and I didn't want to crossbreed from our last bulls, so we needed to update with the best data.
"I studied the Bowman bulls over a couple of weeks and picked out my top preferences and waited to see what happened at the sale.
"For the last seven years, we've always used HBR bulls for our commercial herd, and you can start to see our herd looking really good now."
Lot 8, which was sired by Woodhill Comstock V12 and out of Bowman JaneL35, recorded estimated breeding values of +1.9 kilograms birth weight, +55kg 200-day weight, +96kg 400-day weight, +128kg 600-day weight, +18.8 square centimetres eye muscle area (EMA) and +1.8 per cent intramuscular fat (IMF).
Lot 19, which was sired by Bowman Selwood S7 and out of Bowman Prue S206, recorded a +1.7kg birth weight, +51kg 200-day weight, +102kg 400-day weight, +120kg 600-day weight, +14.8sqcm EMA and +1.4pc IMF.
Bowman stud principal Glenn Bowman said buyers had been more selective in their purchases after recovering from a "tough winter".
"I would've liked to sell more bulls today, but I think people are still recovering from the drought we've just been through," he said.
"A lot of people have bought bulls in the last sale, and their bulls are doing such a good job from here that they didn't need another bull straight away.
"It's good for the stud that the bulls are outlasting and doing the job for so long."
He said Dryburgh had been "good supporters" of the stud in the last few years.
"They've come back as a major force because they know how the genetics work," he said.
"As soon as they got the results from their early genetics, they were quite thrilled at their calving ease and their growth rates."
Elders auctioneer Ross Milne said it was very much a buyer's market.
"The sale average could've been a bit higher, and it was a buyer's market," he said.
"We catered for some new faces at the sale, who we haven't seen in the autumn bull sale.
"We haven't had a spring bull sale before, and we wanted to test the waters to see what the demand is like."
