Leawood Angus clears 96 per cent of bulls as top price reached five times

Offering 10 more bulls than their autumn sale proved no obstacle for Leawood Angus, as commercial producers from across Gippsland bought 96 per cent of the bulls on offer at their spring auction.

The Stuckey family of the Flynn stud sold 52 of 54 bulls offered to average $9577, a lift of $577 from their last sale, with five bulls selling for the $16,000 top price.

Leawood stud principal Luke Stuckey said bulls were bought by graziers in South and East Gippsland.

"These bulls are backed by strong New Zealand pedigrees and they are just good, functional cattle," Mr Stuckey said.

"We have cattle with higher fat and muscle content and they do well in commercial conditions.

"We don't chase data, but we are really focused on breeding structurally correct Angus bulls."

Four of the equal-top-priced bulls were bought by Kevin Opray and Maree Avery, Hedley, who bought Leawood's highest-priced bull in April 2025.

Their purchases included Lot 1, Leawood Ragnar W111, Lot 9, Leawood Rambo W35, Lot 29, Leawood Rock W14, and Lot 49, Leawood Safekeeping W78.

Mr Opray said the 18-month-old bulls would be used in the couple's Angus operation which included 700 breeders.

"We haven't had the greatest run with our heifers calving, so we have bought a few bulls we hope will be more suitable for our younger breeders," he said.

"They have good figures and we took on Luke's recommendations.

"Some of these bulls have reasonably low birth weights and we strongly believe that will help us tidy up our operation and make it a bit more fool-proof."

Mr Opray and Ms Avery were also the largest volume buyers at the sale.

"We are long-time clients of the Stuckey family and I do like the New Zealand genetics and the low maintenance they require," he said.

"The cattle look after themselves and we like that for ease of management."

They sell their cattle between 12-15 months of age in the spring, summer and autumn at the Eastern Victoria Livestock Exchange at Leongatha.

The other $16,000 bull, Lot 12, Leawood Viking W40, was bought by Chris and Sue Waites, Forge Creek.

"My parents-in-law, Dennis and Rosalie Stringer, have always bought Leawood bulls and we are transitioning out of our office-based jobs and into farming," Mr Waites said.

"Dennis and Rosalie are still fully involved in the farm but we plan to take some of the workload off them in the coming years and this bull forms part of that plan."

The two families run a herd of 140 Angus breeders, and plan to maintain that figure in the coming years.

Nutrien stud stock manager for south-east region Peter Godbolt said the sale had five first-time buyers.

"There was a lot of softness, great heads and carcase-backed bulls at Leawood that perform and hit the market specifications," Mr Godbolt said.