A Black Diamond calf champion has topped its sale at Macorna

Three females Lot 27A, 27B and 27C, were offered as a "pick of three" and all placed in competitive classes at the Sydney Royal Show, and two placed third in their class, while Lot 27A was dubbed the calf champion female.

Lot 27A, Black Diamond P192 Tinder T1660, topped the sale at $13,000 and was sired by Black Diamond 60A Prime Time P192 and out of Waratah Pho-Finish L130.

The cow's estimated breeding values included +4.0 kilograms birth weight, +29kg 200-day weight, +35kg 400-day weight and +45kg 600-day weight, as well as 0.6 centimetres scrotal size, +0.1 square centimetres eye muscle area and -0.4 per cent intramuscular fat.

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The other top female was Lot 29, Black Diamond M34 Rosanna R942.

The top bull Lot 1, Black Diamond K08 Smack That S1124 was sired by Dingo Creek Knock Out K08 and out of White Acres Katie.

Epic Speckle Park stud co-principal Sue Carrison, Penola, SA, said she was rapt to purchase the calf champion out of the three top picks.

"She probably wasn't on our radar because I didn't think she would be in our price range but we were able to get her so we were very excited," she said.

"We really like her breeding and have a half sister to her as well, we have two half sisters.

"It was a really good sale, they had some really good quality animals in their sale and for new breeders it's a good time to get into the breed because there's numbers of nice quality stock that's available."

She said they managed 30 breeding females and a few commercial cows at Penola, with crossbred Speckle Parks to put over black commercial cows to produce weaners.

Black Diamond stud principal Murray Van der Drift, Macorna, said he had expected the sale to follow current trends, and was happy with the result.

"We're expecting it to be a bit of a correction in the market from what the previous special sales have done over the last couple of years," he said.

"But now we still had a pretty good clearance, topped $10,000 for the bulls and a couple of $13,000 for the heifers which was a good result.

"We had a handful of new buyers but mainly repeat clients," he said.

Nutrien Albury stud stock agent Peter Godbolt said the sale had a great run of cattle that went to several interstate operations.

"It was a very very good run of cattle," he said.

"The sale was a bit back on last year but there were a lot of return clients which was good to see.

"It was a strong sale with cattle selling to Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia."