*29 of 43 bulls and heifers sold to $10,000, av $4267
INTERSTATE BUYERS: Kevin and Bruce Cavanagh, Tintinara, SA, with Steve Doecke, Elders, Keith, SA, and Lindsay stud principal Craig Grant.
HALF of the Murray Grey bulls sold by Pigeon Ponds stud, Lindsay, are heading interstate.
The stud sold 26 of the 27 bulls it offered at its annual on-property sale to South Australian buyers, with the rest going into South-West Victoria and one to NSW.
Stud principal Craig Grant said it was pleasing to see the South Australian support, given the drought conditions in other parts of the country, where bulls usually went.
“I’m really happy, it was a pretty decent average, given the season,” Mr Grant said.
“We do generally send our bulls Australian wide, but there are pretty tough areas in the rest of the country, so we are pretty happy with that.”
Mr Craig said he was pleased with the evenness of the line of bulls he sold this year.
“It was probably second to none – if I could produce them like that every year I would be pretty happy," he said.
“Consistency and quality are what we are about.”
Mr Craig described the top-priced bull as “really balanced, he is soft, he is easy doing, but he’s got enough frame to be a really important sire, down the track".
"We look forward to seeing how he moves on," he said.
Kevin and Bruce Cavanagh, Cavanagh Farms, Tintinara, SA, paid the top price of $10,000 for the second lot offered, Lindsay Nordic, an April 2017-drop bull.
Sired by Dajory Keifer K274, out of Kilmainhan Fokker K2, the bull weighed 852 kilograms, had an eye muscle area of 127 millimetres, a P8 fat of 9mm, rib fat of 7mm and frame score of 6.6.
Nordic had a birthweight of 3.6kg.
Kevin Cavanagh said he chose the bull for his muscle quality, overall shape and moderate birth weight.
The Cavanaghs have a herd of 220 Murray Grey cows and sell to the feedlots.
“We’ve been buying bulls here since Craig had the stud and we bought some from Jodie Foster before,” he said.
“We’ve been very happy with the results we’ve been getting from the bulls.
“The feedlot buyers we have been selling stock to have told us they ticked the boxes.”
The Cavanaghs also bought Lot 12, Lindsay National N109, for $8000, the only two bulls they said they would buy this year.
Landmark auctioneer Andrew Sloan expressed surprise at the lack of interest on the heifer portion of the sale.
“They were very good commercial females, but we passed the first pen in and wondered why,” Mr Sloan said.
“Obviously, because of the dry conditions, people are a little bit worried about putting a bit of extra stock on.”
Mr Sloan said the bulls “looked the part – they were in good working order, with plenty of meat and muscling".
"There was a good turn up of buyers but they were selective and there was good buying further down in the catalogue," he said.
