'No lulls' in 215-head catalogue at Rennylea Angus as top bulls head to Tasmania
Structurally-correct bulls with early growth, muscle and marbling were in demand at the Rennylea Angus spring bull sale.
Held on-property at Culcairn on Thursday, August 27, all 215 bulls were sold to a top price of $48,000 and for an average of $15,088.
Bulls were sold to buyers from NSW, ACT, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
The top-priced bull was Rennylea V1795, which sold for $48,000 to TRT Pastoral Group, Victoria.
The 975-kilogram, two-year-old bull, sired by Connealy Craftsman and from Rennylea S342, ranked in the top 1 per cent for days to calving (DC) with a figure of -9.7.
He also ranked in the top 5pc for 400-day growth with a figure of +117, and in the top 10pc for calving ease daughters and carcase weight with figures of +7.8 and +91 respectively.
TRT Pastoral Group managing director Tim Roberts-Thomson said the bull had great figures, particularly on 400- and 600-day growth.
"He's got really good feet and we need that on King Island with the soft country," he said.
Mr Roberts-Thomson said TRT operated a large feeder operation across northeast Victoria at Mansfield, King Island and northwest Tasmania at Woolnorth, running about 11,000 Angus breeders, along with a small dairy operation in Tasmania.
He said they returned to Rennylea for the first time in several years.
"We needed some different bloodlines and Rennylea has an outstanding reputation with the feedlots," he said.
Rennylea's Ruth Corrigan said the top-price bull was the "best Craftsman we've ever bred".
"He's very heavily muscled," she said.
"A lot of early growth and he has very good feet to be able to handle a lot of weight. Good foot data, he's high indexing and offered an outcross pedigree so that was an attraction too."
The second top-priced bull was Rennylea V1710, which sold for $42,000 to Creese North East, Tomahawk, Tasmania.
The two-year-old bull, 832kg, by Rennylea T17 and from Rennylea S1158, ranked in the top 1pc for EMA with a figure of +17.6 and top 2pc for 200-day growth with a figure of +71.
He also ranked in the top 3pc for carcase weight with a figure of +97 and top 4pc for 400- and 600-day growth with figures of +118 and +157 respectively.
Rennylea Angus spring bull sale
Pictures by Alexandra Bernard
Long-term repeat buyer Mannus Ag, Greg Greg, picked up eight bulls to a top of $24,000 for an average of $16,750.
Graham Greenhalgh, Mannus Ag, said they were mostly heifer bulls for their artificial insemination program with their young cattle.
"We don't want big cows - we're in hard country [in the Upper Murray and at Bungendore] so we need a cow that can be efficient in the autumn and the winter and not get too big and heavy to rejoin," he said.
"We chase high marbling, eye muscle and carcase weight."
Mr Greenhalgh runs a meat business, The Australian Meat Emporium, in Alexandria, and supplies heavy bullocks weekly.
He said they will join 2900 females this spring and the family had been buying bulls from Rennylea for more than 30 years.
"My father bought cattle from here when I was a kid but probably the last five years we really stepped up the genetics we've been getting to put through for the butcher shop," he said.
"We're selecting for animals that get cattle to a finished weight quicker and we chase a high carcase weight animal."
Ms Corrigan said it was a pleasing sale with "no lulls" throughout the catalogue, with strong support from repeat buyers.
"People were pretty focused on the structure and were looking for bulls with early growth, muscle and marbling," she said.
The sale was conducted by Nutrien Ag Solutions with Peter Godbolt and Andrew Wishart sharing the rostrum as auctioneers. AuctionsPlus provided the online interface.
