Produced by Te Mania Livestock from Parnassus in Canterbury, the two-year-old Te Mania Matrix fetched $35,000, well ahead of the next most expensive animal.
“He is a very classy, stylish bull. There had been a fair bit of talk about him,” Heggie said.
Te Mania principal Tim Wilding was a happy vendor.
“It was a great price and a thrill to top the sale.
“He’s going to a good home, keen on carcase data like we are. We all want to breed a better animal.”
The bull was bought jointly by Kauri Downs Stud from Waikato and Stokmans Angus from Rotorua. They will share his breeding services.
Wilding said having the top sale bull was a triumph for his son Will because it was his first mating programme after returning home as stock manager.
The bull was bred using semen from an Australian sire over one of the stud’s own Angus heifers.
“We will have three or four similar bulls in our own main onfarm sale in June, all by the same sire and from our breed.
“My father would have been proud as he started breeding from heifers 50 years ago and we’ve made good genetic progress since then.”
The Angus, Hereford, and Shorthorn breeding societies took part in this first national online video sale. Buyers had earlier been able to inspect the animals in the flesh before gathering at the Palmerston North Convention Centre. They were shown video of the sale offerings walking, filmed about three weeks earlier, and were then shown a still photo before bidding began.
There were some minor glitches, such as delays in the video displays but overall the sale was a success, Heggie said.
He believes enough was achieved to bring vendors and buyers back to the format next year with a possibility some other breeding societies, notably Charolais, Simmental and South Devon, which sat this one out in a wait-and-see approach might come in as well.
“I didn’t talk to many people there who were uncomfortable with how it went but the breed societies will get together for a debrief and we will as well.”
Heggie reported 24 Angus bulls sold at an average of $11,854.
After the Te Mania winner, second top price was $27,500 paid by the Carruthers’ Netherton Angus for a bull from Ranui Holdings.
“It also had very good data and in the flesh and was so quiet that they could have walked him into the sale,” Heggie said.
A bull offered by John and Joss Bayly’s Waitangi Angus Stud achieved the third highest price for the Angus breed. The price was $22,000, paid by Lane Brothers’ Whangara Angus near Gisborne.
Fourth top price was $18,000 for Storth Oaks, bought by Motere Station.
About 20 Hereford bulls sold at the video sale, at an average $8607 each.
Top price was $22,000 for bull offered by G J and D A Chamberlain of Cheviot and bought by P and L Barnett.
“It was a lovely bull, good coloured and well-marked and a good carcase.”
Second-top price was $17,000 from R J and M A Burrows Trust and bought by Koanui Stud.
“They were the two best Hereford bulls in the sale and deserved the top money.”
A small offering of Shorthorns, with just five sold, averaged $7400 with a top price of $11,000.
Wilding is keen on the national sale for the profile and support it gives the Angus breed but admitted to being apprehensive about the new video format, saying it was not his preferred way.
“We like to run our bulls one at a time in front of buyers as that gives them a last-minute look.”
He’d like the bulls to be a bit closer to the sale venue so buyers can go for a last look rather than being well away as was the case in the Manawatu venue.
One of the most encouraging features of the sale for him was that the underbidder on the $35,000 bull is a commercial farmer.
“The national sale hasn’t got a huge commercial following but this shows that the commercial breeder is also putting a lot of effort into genetics.”
Commercial farmers are the bread-and-butter buyers at Te Mania’s onfarm sale.
“We get a lot of repeat buyers,” he said.
