High-profile studs drive strong Angus demand at Bowman spring bull sale
High-profile studs and commercial producers drove the Bowman Performance Genetics spring bull sale to a $36,000 top, competing strongly for easy-calving Angus bulls.
The Neerim South stud sold 38 of 46 two-year-old bulls to achieve a sale average of $9842.
In March, the stud sold 49 of 60 Angus bulls to a top price of $16,000 to average $8520.
The spring draft was headlined by sons of prominent sires Millah Murrah Trigger and Woodhill Constock, attracting widespread interest across Victoria, NSW, and Tasmania.
The sale highlight came when Damian and Mandy Gommers, Mandayen Angus Stud, Keith, SA, secured Lot 13, Bowman Trigger V342, for the auction's top bid of $36,000, a week after buying shares in the top-priced bull at Banquet Angus in the western Victoria.
Bowman Performance Genetics stud principal Glenn Bowman said the sale topper was one of the best bulls he had bred to date.
He said the moderate birth weight bull ranked in the top 1 per cent of the breed for net feed efficiency and top 3 per cent for eye muscle area (EMA).
"We took a significant step forward with the stud with some of Australia's highest-profile Angus studs operating at the top end of our bulls," Mr Bowman said.
"I'm one of the first stud principals outside of Millah Murrah to be using sons of Trigger, and while we only had two sons in this sale, we will have more in our autumn auction.
"I bought semen from (Trigger) and I'm hearing now that the semen is getting hard to secure, so that could be a reason why these bulls are in such demand."
The bull was also in the top 11pc of the breed for 600-day weight.
"The feed efficiency moving forward is an obvious one, because it takes less feed to put kilograms on the animal," Mr Bowman said.
"We see that as a step forward in reducing methane emissions by having animals finished faster."
Mr Gommers said it was the first time he had purchased a bull from the Neerim South stud.
"He is a very good phenotype bull with reasonable data and we needed another back-up bull in our operation," Mr Gommers said.
"He will be joined to our stud cows after our artificial insemination program in November.
"We haven't used any of Trigger's bloodlines and that's what drew us to this bull."
Mandayen is spread across 3230 hectares with properties at Keith, Murray Bridge, SA, and Tilley Swamp, SA, running a stud herd of 400 cows and commercial operation of 300 Angus breeders.
The operation also features about 100 Limousin cows, and a feedlot supplying 1600 cattle to Coles each year, plus a dryland cropping enterprise used for livestock feed in the feedlot.
The second-top price bull was another Trigger son, Lot 4, Bowman Trigger V161, which fetched $24,000 and was knocked down to Murdeduke Angus stud, Winchelsea.
Commercial demand was led by first-time volume buyers Chris and Helen Nixon, Black Mountain Station, Wulgulmerang, who secured five bulls to a top of $12,000.
The Nixon's draft of bulls, including their dearest, Lot 11, Bowman Constock V99, averaged $9600.
"Sons of a new sire, Woodhill Constock, were also highly sought, with 13 of his sons in the sale selling to a top price of $13,000 for a total clearance," Mr Bowman said.
Among the other volume buyers were long-term clients Bindi Station, Bindi, which bought three bulls to a top price of $8000, plus Sladin Pty Ltd, Flynn, which bought three bulls to $8000.
Mr Bowman, who sells about 100 bulls a year by auction, said it was his second spring sale in five years, with regular, annual autumn sales held each March.
