Bonnydale Black Simmentals stud principals Rob (left) and Mike Introvigne, Bridgetown, Bill Kessell, Elders Donnybrook, buyer Noel Holdsworth, ND & BJ Holdsworth, Bridgetown, Elders auctioneer Gary Preston and top price award sponsor Michael Rose, Zoetis, with the $12,500 equal top priced bull at the Bonnydale sale Bonnydale Kruiser M9.
With the $12,500 equal top-priced bull Bonnydale Kruiser M106 at the Bonnydale Black Simmentals annual on-property yearling bull sale at Bridgetown on Monday were buyer Lesley McDonald (left), RJ & LG McDonald, Karridale, former Elders Karridale livestock agent Brian Bowden, Tyson, Rob and Mike Introvigne, Bonnydale Black Simmentals, Elders South West livestock manager Michael Carroll, top price award sponsor Michael Rose, Zoetis and Bill Kessell, Elders Donnybrook.
The Bonnydale team’s strong regular following from WA and the Eastern States joined a number of new faces to fill a 57-strong buyer register. And with the sale interfaced on AuctionsPlus for the first time this year, a further 18 buyers registered online at some point during the sale.
Resolute bidding, generating from widespread interest, saw results up across the board with the sale grossing more than half a million dollars. Forty two Black Simmental bulls averaged $8542 while 24 SimAngus bulls, ranging from half Black Simmental influence to 7/8, averaged $7750.
The outstanding results leapt ahead of last year’s strong sale where overall 50 of 52 bulls sold to gross $326,050 and average $6521 – a significant $1733 swing north in overall average. But there still remained a number of bulls that sold in the $5000 to $6500 price range to satisfy all budgets.
The sale’s $12,500 equal top bid was first placed on lot six by Lesley McDonald, RJ & LG McDonald, Karridale, for the classy Black Simmental Bonnydale Kruiser M106. M106 was an early February 2016 born son of homebred parents Bonnydale Kruiser and Guava J143 weighing 40kg at birth.
The McDonalds return to Bonnydale every couple of years to buy bulls and this was the fourth time they had purchased black bulls at the sale. The bulls are joined to the family’s first cross Angus and Murray Grey-Friesian breeding herd. Suitable heifers from the F1 joining are retained in the breeding herd with heifers joined to SimAngus bulls for their maiden calving.
It wasn’t until lot 41 before the other top bid was taken when Noel and Bev Holdsworth, ND & BJ Holdsworth, Bridgetown, paid $12,500 for Bonnydale Kruiser M9, another son of Kruiser and out of Bonnydale Jossie J108 born January 10, 2016, at 38kg. Mr Holdsworth runs 110 predominantly Murray Grey breeders and has been buying bulls at Bonnydale for the past 10 years.
AuctionsPlus bidding yielded four sales including the $11,250 second top price. The price was paid for Bonnydale Jim Beam M57, a mid-January 2016 born son of Bonnydale parents Jim Beam and Lil Dess F213 at 34kg BW.
Other buyers to pay $10,000 for their selections included the sale’s volume buyer Graham Lloyd, Springsure, Queensland. As a beef producer and Elders central Queensland agent, Mr Lloyd purchased a total of nine bulls for himself and Queensland clients.
His own account, Nell Partnership, consisted of five bulls including two Black Simmental bulls for $9500 and $9000 and three SimAngus of varying influence to $8000.
Mr Lloyd purchased two bulls for Jane Geddes, Dingo, paying to $10,000 for another son of Kruiser weighing 604kg, $10,000 again for a 666kg high indexing son of Bonnydale Black Hawk H274 for Owen Berry, Anakie and $7500 for a son of AI sire Sand Ranch Hand suitable for heifer joining for MB Ag, Springsure.
H Wolfe & Co, Bornholm, collected three bulls at the sale and paid to $10,250 for a 668kg AI son of TNT Tanker that ranked in the top 5pc for 200 and 400-day weight and DMI, NTI and VTI.
Rodney Wilson, Yornup Holdings and Wilsons Transport, Yornup, paid the sale’s $9750 top SimAngus bull price in a team of four bulls. It was the Wilson family’s third year at Bonnydale buying black bulls to cover their 300 Angus breeders. A line of 40 SimAngus heifers have been retained for breeding.
Other multiple bull accounts included return buyers Glenomera, Mandurah, with two three quarter SimAngus bulls and a Black Simmental bull paying to $9500, Cattle Chosen Grazing, Busselton, which also paid to $9500 for three Black Simmental bulls, Jarnadup Investments, Manjimup, with three Black Simmental bulls to $9250 and the Yates Family Trust, Collie, with three Black Simmental bulls paying from $6750 to $7250.
Gypsy Hill collected two 7/8 SimAngus bulls for $9250 each and Tellarup Brook, Manjimup, paid $9750 and $9250 also for two Black Simmental bulls.
Bonnydale co-principal Mike Introvigne thanked buyers and underbidders for their continued support. “It’s very humbling to achieve such a sale result and great to see our breeding program so widely accepted throughout the country,” Mr Introvigne said. “Beef is our business and passion and client success drives us to deliver the best product we can.
“We aim to deliver worldclass genetics and lift the profitability of your herds – especially with today’s prices, the more kilograms you get into your calves, the more money you will make.”
Edited from Farm Weekly