Stoney Point bull headed north

The top-priced bull, Stoney Point Nolte N340, sold to Glenavon Angus stud in Guyra, NSW, for $9000 last Wednesday, one of 30 bulls sold with one passed in and an average of $4984 recorded.

"I was pleased with Wednesday's result with repeat customers as well as some new clients almost yielding a full clearance," Stoney Point Performance Angus stud manager Peter Colliver said.

"It was a pleasing result given the challenging seasonal conditions experienced last spring and summer."

Mr Colliver said the stud, which celebrated its 21st anniversary recently, was establishing a new clientele base in south-west Victoria which had grown from strength to strength in the last five years.

"Our cattle are raised under pretty tough conditions [and] structure is quite an issue for us given the sandy soils we have over here so we focus a lot on the structure of bulls," he said.

"We had a fairly large spread of ages in the bulls and to sell all the yearling bulls I was pretty happy about that [because] I thought they may have struggled but they sold well.

"The 2-year-olds were as good a bulls as we've put up anywhere so I was very happy with the condition of those animals too."

Stoney Point also sold 23 out of 24 "top quality" surplus cows with calves at foot which recorded a top price of $2000 on six occasions with an average of $1735.

Top-priced buyer Richard Post, Glenavon Angus stud, said he liked the strong structure and growth backed up by promising estimated breeding values.

"He was independently graded at a seven plus by beef consultant Dick Whale who brought my attention to the bull," Mr Post said.

"We were after a stud sire because we're in the worst drought in New England's history and we were looking for a good stud bull for paddocking joining.

"I won't be able to AI as many this year because of the drought so I'll need a bull in the paddock."