RECOGNITION as one of the leading suppliers of consistent high-quality Angus bulls has clearly come for Mark and Anna Gubbins and family, Coolana Angus.
Last Thursday's Victorian autumn bull sale at their home base of Chatsworth saw their best ever result when 72 bulls were sold to a top price of $14,500 and averaged $5785 in a total clearance.
This average was up by $1201 on last year's solid but undervalued sale result.
From their South Australian Hamilla Downs base on the Coorong, they recently achieved another total clearance when 60 bulls averaged $4667 during SA Angus Week.
When that is combined with their Chatsworth spring sale last September and this most recent result, Coolana has achieved a total clearance of 189 bulls at a $5241 average.
These results are just reward for the high and consistent quality offered.
That was evident in last Thursday's sale, where it was difficult to visually identify standout bulls, such was their evenness and the lack of a "tail" in the offering.
Elders auctioneer Ross Milne said, "I've had the pleasure of standing over many of the Coolana drafts over the years and I'd say this is arguably the most complete and even draft ever offered by the Gubbins family."
However, buyers narrowing down their selection choices and auction bidding competition often brings a greater price discrepancy than the variance in quality warrants, as was the case in this sale.
Two buyers from the 40 registered bidders in a gallery of little more than 100 people dominated the sale highlights for both price and volume.
Long-term repeat buyers Simon and Andrea Rowe, Princess Royal Station, buying through Elders Burra, SA, made their intentions clear from the first lot offered, Coolana Equator J085.
Weighing in at 720 kilograms at 19 months of age and off grass, the bull drew the winning $10,000 bid from the Rowes as they began a big day's buying.
Mr Rowe said, "After 150mm of rainfall our Princess Royal and Wertaloona Stations are in pretty good order, enabling us to confidently move ahead with our breeding program. We are about 25mm away from having feed that will last two years, despite some pretty severe forty degree days."
This purchase was the first of 22 they made throughout the sale, including the final two lots, as they bought astutely and balanced top-end buying with plenty of average-breakers.
Their top purchase was lot 3, Coolana Franklin J177, at $13,500, possessing well-balanced Breedplan figures to top off a wonderful phenotype.
With six bulls at the base $3000, the Rowes' purchases av $5705.
These base-price bulls included Coolana New Day J339, a bull highlighted by having the highest muscling EBV in the catalogue at an impressive +10.3.
"These Angus bulls handle our area exceptionally well and a key advantage we've found is their better fertility," Mr Rowe said.
Mr Winser was the dominant volume buyer at Coolana's South Australian sale in February when he purchased 20 bulls.
They were to go over heifers purchased for his newly acquired Edenhope block, but his purchases at last week's sale were for this home Mount Gambier, SA, property on which he runs 3000 breeding cows.
The Gubbins said they were "blown away" by the fantastic support and were very pleased with the quality of the bulls they had offered.
