LIVESTOCKThursday September 21, 2017 QUEENSLAND COUNTRY LIFE 77queenslandcountrylife.com.au

A FIVE state buying panelfeaturing numerous repeatbuyers drove demand toa record $10,681 averagefor Shorthorn bulls at theMorgan family’s The Grovebull sale, Myall Grove, Con-damine last week.

Their 34th annualon-property fixture clearedthe entire run of 99 Short-horn bulls for a $10,681 aver-age – last year 87 Shorthornbulls averaged $9282 – 13Durham Reds for a $5269 av-erage and 21 Durham Blacksaveraged $5857.

The majority of the cat-alogue was sold using theelectronic Helmsman sys-tem with a handful of bullsauctioned by Geoff Maslenof GDL at Roma, which in-cluded the $45,000 top sell-ing bull.

Staunch Shorthorn ad-vocates John and CarolBrownlie, Deepwater Farm-ing Company, Deepwater,Westmar bid the top moneyfor The Grove L0443 (P), a25-month- old, 975kg sonof The Grove J0572 (P) withimpeccable performance fig-ures which included a MSA

B2 index value of $81 – thehighest in the catalogue.

Mr Brownlie said TGL0443 epitomised what aclassic Shorthornbull shouldlook like and hewas themostcomplete bull he had seen ina very long time.

“He has a super smoothcoat, tremendous musclingand backed by top notch,high indexing carcase fig-ures,” saidMr Brownlie.

“We run 2500 Shorthornbreeders and intend to useL0443 over selected cows tobreed bulls for our own use,”he added.

Central Queensland com-mercial beef producer ClydeHoffman and family, CNHoffman, Marlborough wasrepresented by his managerPaul Kipling who outlaid the$33,000 second top moneyforThe Grove L0545 (P).

The outstanding polledred son of Turanville Mittie-bah H132 boasted an MSAB2 index of $70, which placeshim in the top 5 per cent ofthe breed.

Mr Kipling said TG L0545excelled in all the carcasetraits which he was looking

to add to their commercialBrahman-based herd.

“We have used The Grovebulls in the past and the re-sults we are getting from theprogeny really warranted usreturning,” Mr Kipling said.

“L0545 was nearly threetimes the breed averagefor IMF percentage so hewill really give us a kick inthe quality of our carcases,”he added.

Volume buyers includedCampbell and Roz Brownlie,Brownlie Grazing Company,Condamine who boughtfive quality Shorthorn bullsfor a $8667 average and theYambah Propriotors, Yam-bah Station, Alice Springssecured a quality line ofnine Shorthorn bulls for a$9167 average.

West Australian clientMarc Ross manages theEmanuel family’s Lanstal PtyLtd, which operates prop-erties in the Pinjarra andEsperence districts runninga 4000 strong pure Shorthorncommercial herd.

Mr Ross bought 13 redShorthorn bulls for a $8700average which included

The Grove L0260 (P), a highcarcase indexing son of TheGrove J0563 (P) for $10,000.

He based his selectionson conformation, positiverib and rump fat cover, goodgrowth figures combined

with low birth weight dataand plenty of muscle expres-sion.

Otherbulkbuyerswere theQuinn family, Essex GrazingCompany, Middlemountwho selected seven bulls for

a $10,430 average and paidup to $13,000 for The GroveL0743 (P), a quality son ofThe Grove J0598 (P) withbalanced growth, carcaseand rawdatafigures to add totheir quality Charbray herd.

The McIntyre familybought eight quality DurhamBlacks for a $5750 average in-cluding the $9500 top-pricedbull,The Grove L0630, a five/eighth Angus Durham Blackwhichweighed 960kgs at twoyears of age for their breed-ing operation at St George.

Bulls were dispersed allover Queensland, NorthernTerritory, West Australia,Victoria and South Australia.■ Agents: Landmark andGDL.

Grove Shorthorns hitaverage of $10,681

Godfrey Morgan, The Grove Shorthorns, with buyers of top-priced bull The GroveL0443 (P), John, Carol, Lucy and Annabelle Brownlie, Deepwater Farming Company.

Sophie Morgan with Paul and Danielle Kipling whobought The Grove L0545 (P), on behalf of Clyde Hoffman.

– PETER LOWE