Sustained high cattle prices and an improved season are encouraging stud breeders and livestock agents to predict this year’s Victorian bull selling season will be at least as strong as last year’s.
Michael Glasser, GTSM, said last year, their average prices generally increased $1500 to $2000.
And while Mr Glasser expects the south-eastern states’ bull sales to remain strong, he does not think the prices will jump to the same extent. He expects clearance rates to remain high.
He advises potential buyers to “...always buy the best bull you can afford”.
“Although the cattle industry is very strong, I’m concerned about cow numbers,” Mr Glasser said.
Landmark’s stud stock manager South East Region, Ray Attwell, said studs might sell more bulls, thanks to clients receiving very good prices for their cull cows and young stock in the past 12 months.
“So where we ad about 90 per cent clearance rate, we might have about 94 or 95pc.”
Mr Attwell has been impressed by the bulls he’s seen recently: “Generally for all breeds, the quality of the bulls is extraordinary.” He added well-bred and evenness drafts were becoming more apparent.
Elders’ Southern Zone stud stock manager Ross Milne also has high expectations and said an improved season in Victoria and NSW could see bulls sale improve even more.
Studs are also increasingly using technology to provide information to clients.
Elite Livestock Auctions’ South Australia and Victoria business development manager Miles Pfitzner said the company would broadcast live via the internet its first SA stud bull sales this week, and the number of inquiries they’d received from Victorian studs had increased in the past two to three months.
“The big kicker in SA and Victoria, is studs can showcase their bulls during Beef Week and people can see what they like and then bid on the animals from home (via the online service),” Mr Pfitzner said.
He said as the number of remote purchases increased, the trust between the stud breeder and their buyers was more important than ever.
The team at Te Mania Angus, whose headquarters is at at Mortlake, were early adopters of interfacing their physical bull sale with online service AuctionsPlus. Information including phenotype descriptions, pedigrees, estimated breeding values has been enhanced by online videos of the Te Mania bulls since about 2010. Last year they trialled live-streaming audio of the auction, and while there were glitches, Mr McFarlane said they would offer it again, so people bidding remotely could hear the tempo of the sale.
Claremont Angus, Woolsthorpe, have similarly been uploading videos of their sale bulls for about seven years. Principals Graeme and Liz Glasgow said Robert Paragreen, Livestock Video, Foster, did an “excellent job” in filming the bulls about six weeks before sale day.
The videos are put on the stud’s website and on sale day, they are screened on a large TV to the buying gallery. Bulls are left in pens of five, next to the buying shed, and Mrs Glasgow said people could inspect them before and during the sale. She said this eased OH&S concerns and the animals’ stress.
She said fertility health programs and semen testing were becoming ever more important. The Glasgows have the bulls on Pfizer STAR Program, which stands for Steps Taken Against Reproductive disease, including against Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVDV), Leptospirosis and Vibriosis.
Mrs Glasgow expects the bull sales to be strong.
“Everyone had very good prices for calves and mature cows they sold and hopefully these profits go through to bull sales.
“Australia is restocking including after drought in the north, and this shows the resilience that even after drought and hardships, Australians are willing to go back and restock.”
Jeremy Upton is the general manager at Yarram Park, Willaura, which is hosting its first on-property sale next week – despite the Hereford stud being founded in 1948. Mr Upton said while they’d been selling about 100 bulls a year privately, in the past few years, many of their regular clients had been pushing for an auction. The sale will also be on AuctionsPlus and Mr Upton the timing of their first sale fortunate, as the buoyant beef market had brought optimism to the industry.
