Record female price underlines endless horizon for Angus

Lot 181 – Millah Murrah Prue M4 sold for $190,000 to Brooklana Angus, Brooklana NSW. Image Ben Simpson.

From an industry perspective, the Millah Murrah Angus sale underlined the seemingly endless horizon in demand for quality Angus cattle, according to stud principal Ross Thompson.

Below is the complete Millah Murrah Cow Sale report.

Sale Date October 19th 2017, at Bathurst NSW.
Selling Agent: Elders Bathurst (Andrew Bickford & David Simpson) with Guest Auctioneer Paul Dooley and Elders’ Andy McGeoch in the rostrum.

At a glance:

 100% clearance of 234 Lots offered in under four hours.
 Top price $190,000
 Average price $13,709
 Gross $3,208,000
Sale facts:

 Lot 117, PTIC cow, Prue H112 broke the record for an Angus cow, when she sold for $54,000 to East West Angus from Bingara. She passed the old mark of $48,000 set at the Aberdeen Dispersal in 2013.
 Lot 181, PTIC heifer, Prue M4 then sold for $190,000 to break the record set less than an hour earlier. She sold to Brooklana Angus from Brooklana. East West Angus was the underbidder. This is believed to be the highest price paid for a beef female of any breed in Australasia. It is the highest price for an Angus animal of any description in Australia, surpassing the previous mark of $150,000 for the bull, Millah Murrah Kingdom K35 in 2015.
 The average price of $13,709 for 234 Lots, surpassed the previous record for Angus (also then thought to be an industry benchmark) of $8494 for 260 Lots, set at the Wattletop stage 1 dispersal in May this year.
 Two auctioneers sold at the sale; Paul Dooley and Andy McGeoch. Dooley stood over a majority of the offering, to sell 191 head for a gross of 2.669M. This is believed to be the largest single sale gross by one Auctioneer in Australia.
 The $3.208M gross is believed to be the largest single vendor result in history and the largest single day gross ever for any Stud sale in Australia.
 It is the 5th highest average ever for an Angus cow or bull sale, only surpassed by the Millah Murrah bull sales of 2015, 2016 & 2017 & Booragul’s bull sale in 2017. The industry record for a bull sale average of any breed in Australia is $16,348 for 109 bulls at Millah Murrah in 2016.
 Six females made $40,000 or more
 Four females made $30 – $40,000
 21 females made $20 – $30,000

DETAILS OF THE HIGH SELLING ANIMALS

Lot	Name	Class	Buyer	Location	Price
181	Prue M4	PTIC heifer	Brooklana Angus	Brooklana	$190,000
117	Prue H112	PTIC dry cow	East West Angus	Bingara	$54,000
182	Prue M121	PTIC heifer	Coolie Angus	Merriwa	$46,000
57	Prue K2	Cow with bull calf	Mandayen Angus	Brinkley SA	$42,000
94	Brenda J23	Cow with bull calf	Mandayen Angus & Cherylton	Brinkley SA & Kojonup WA	$40,000
183	Ela M6	PTIC heifer	Coolie Angus	Merriwa	$40,000
40	Flower L293	Heifer with heifer calf	Fernleigh Angus	Warragul Vic	$38,000
209	Brenda M40	PTIC heifer	Coolie Angus	Merriwa	$32,000
108	Brenda F6	Open Donor	Heart Angus & Cherylton	Tamworth & Kojonup WA	$30,000
151	Brenda L73	PTIC dry cow	Coolie Angus	Merriwa	$30,000
21	Flower L290	Heifer with heifer calf	East West Angus	Bingara	$28,000
74	Prue K203	Cow with heifer calf	East West Angus	Bingara	$28,000
98	Prue H219	Cow with heifer calf	Wallangra Past Co	Wandoan QLD	$28,000
114	Flower G41	PTIC dry cow	Redbank Angus	Eurobodalla	$28,000
128	Flower J196	PTIC dry cow	Heart Angus & Cherylton	Tamworth & Kojonup WA	$28,000
145	Flower L50	PTIC dry cow	East West Angus	Bingara	$28,000
93	Prue J232	Cow with bull calf	Heart Angus	Tamworth	$26,000
133	Brenda K102	PTIC dry cow	Graneta Angus & Mandayen	Bell Qld & Brinkley SA	$26,000
136	Brenda L97	PTIC dry cow	Black Tara Angus	Tara Qld	$26,000
10	Flower L213	Heifer with bull calf	Tweed Valley Angus	Tweed Valley	$22,000
17	Rado L276	Heifer with bull calf	Coolie Angus	Merriwa	$22,000
78	Flower K235	Cow with bull calf	Vielun Angus	Mudgee	$22,000
84	Flower K269	Cow with heifer calf	Wombramurra Black Simmental	Nundle	$22,000
127	Flower J192	PTIC dry cow	Black Diamond & Palgrove	Woodstock & Dalveen Qld	$22,000
59	Prue K79	Cow with heifer calf	Coolie Angus	Merriwa	$20,000

113	Brenda G37	Open Donor	Redbank Angus	Eurobodalla	$20,000
138	Flower L95	PTIC dry cow	Coolie Angus	Merriwa	$20,000
141	Ela L11	PTIC dry cow	Coffin Creek Angus	Mudgee	$20,000
149	Brenda L65	PTIC dry cow	Box Moor Angus	Bundarra	$20,000
207	Brenda M38	PTIC heifer	Josh Clift	Scone	$20,000
223	Prue M165	PTIC heifer	Sterita Park Angus	Lucindale SA	$20,000

All at Millah Murrah are overwhelmed by the result. We thank all buyers and supporters of our programme. Thanks also to the selling Agents and Paul Dooley.

We feel the sale reflects the strong demand for our bulls over the past seven years and 50 years of dedication to maternal function. We thought the females on offer were simply as good as we could ever hope to produce.

From an industry perspective, the sale underlined the seemingly endless horizon in demand for quality Angus cattle. Support from within the breed was enormous, with plenty of long term buyers of Millah Murrah genetics operating in volume like Heart Angus, Coffin Creek, Coolie, Mandayen in SA, Keringa in SA, Cherylton in WA.

There were also plenty of newcomers to Angus operating at the sale, already running existing seedstock enterprises in other breeds. The sale result was certainly a very healthy sign for the Angus brand.

Ross Thompson