Santa bull sale tops $13k at Beef Expo
A BULL from south of the border topped the Santa Gertrudis Sale at the Queensland Beef Expo in Toowoomba yesterday.
The dark red, slick-skinned bull from Jock Cunninghame’s Hallcraig Santa Stud in Wellington Vale, NSW, caught the eye of Jandowae’s David Greenup, Rosevale, who splashed $13,000 on the two-year-old stud bull.
Mr Greenup said he was hoping he wouldn’t have to spend that much, but wasn’t surprised when the hammer fell.
“He’s tremendously functional, reproductively and structurally, has a very fine coat type and the other thing is he’s got reasonably good performance data, and there’s a bit of different, old Santa Gertrudis blood in his pedigree, which is of interest to me,” Mr Greenup said.
Elders Toowoomba stud stock auctioneer Andrew Meara said 64 bulls were sold at auction throughout the second day of the Queensland Beef Expo, 30 of which went under the hammer at the Spring Classic All Breeds Sale and the remainder at the Santa Gertrudis Sale.
Mr Meara said the other two highlights of the sale were an $8000 charolais bull from Rockview Lodge, Oakey, and a $7000 poll hereford from Weetalabah, Dulacca.
Overall, Mr Meara said the better bulls sold quite well, but with the dry winter and “things getting a bit tight, market-wise, the clearance felt the pinch of the weather”.
“People are just reluctant to buy until it rains,” he added.
But Mr Greenup said that didn’t affect his decision to buy.
“Just because it’s a bit dry now doesn’t mean it’s going to be in a few months time,” he said.
The Queensland Beef Expo finishes today.