Green Range bred Angus heifers top Blue Ribbon sale at $4450

First-time buyers from King River secured a pen of six Green Range-bred Angus heifers that sold for the top-price of $4450/head at the Great Southern Blue Ribbon Female Sale at the Mt Barker Regional Saleyards. Overall 675 female breeders were offered and sold through Nutrien Livestock for a gross of $1,969,750 and a sale average price of $2918/head, down $710/head on last year when 730 females sold for a gross of $2,648,300. There were 364 PTIC pure or cross bred heifers, the majoriy Angus, that sold for an average price of $3349 and 245 PTIC pure or cross bred cows that sold for an average price of $2617 plus 62 unmated heifers that averaged $1764. The top-priced takers were Sharon and Clinton Rayner, trading as Norwood Ridge in King River, who were first time buyers at the Blue Ribbon sale. “We were selecting for pure PTIC Angus heifers that had length and depth,” Ms Rayner said. “My husband Clinton and I are starting up a herd after buying our farm 12 months ago. “I grew up on a farm in Denmark and I just love cattle.” Ms Rayner said she had been buying in some specific lines of heifers recently and with their selections at the sale, she was now up to 84 breeders. At the Blue Ribbon sale, the Rayners secured two lines of Baboo heifers (17 head) and two lines of heifers (16 head) from the Rochester family’s K & M Farming Trust for a total sum of 33 head for an average price of $3921/head. “We are keen on the Coonamble bloodlines,” Ms Rayner said. Green Range breeder Ryan Smith, of Baboo Pastoral Company, who farms with his parents Ian and Kristina and brother Scott and his wife Alaina, said he wished Sharon and Clinton Rayner all the best with their drafts of heifers from his family’s herd. “The heifers we offered were great quality from more than 30 years of breeding with Coonamble bloodlines,” he said. “Its a credit to the Davis family, of Coonamble (Angus stud) who have been steadfast with their breeding. “And also the strength behind the marketing of the Angus brand.” In total, the Smith family offered and sold 34 PTIC Angus heifers for an average price of $3814/head. Mr Smith said his family had been supplying their “excess-to-requirment” heifers to the Blue Ribbon sale for about 15 years and last week was the third year-in-a-row that they topped the pure-bred heifer catalogue. The $4300/head second top-priced was achieved with a pen of eight PTIC Red Angus heifers offered by GJ & TM Smith of Kildarra Red Angus stud in Forest Hill, which were sold to Dalwallinu-based Harding Sawyer Company through Nutrien Livestock Great Southern livestock manager Bob Pumphrey. Also selling well was a pen of 10 PTIC Angus heifers, offered by Baboo, that were sold to Albany cattle producer Steve Panizza for $4250/head. The top-priced pen of PTIC Angus cross heifers sold for $3750/head to Manjimup account J & Y Dimitriou through Elders Manjimup agent Cameron Harris. This draft of seven PTIC Angus cross Friesian heifers were offered by regular vendors, the Houden family, of The Southden Trust in Redmond. The Houden’s offering of 44 PTIC heifers all sold for an average price of $3411 as a sideline to their 500 cow dairy milk production. Mal Houden said he was “reasonably happy” with the values they recieved. “After selling at this sale for about 12 years, we are prepared to take the going market price,” he said. Redmond cattle producers Stevie Paterson and her father Ross Temby were back at the sale to buy the $3500 top-priced pen of PTIC Angus cross cows offered by regular vendor FV Hortin & Sons. “We were chasing 2nd calvers to run in our 50 head herd,” Ms Paterson said. “The Blue Ribbon sale is a great venue to source quality and that’s why we have been sourcing cattle here for 15 years,” she said. “It is also the saleyards in which we sell our calves.” The largest draft of females was offered by the Chalmers family, of Nypin Grazing Company in Esperance, who sold 133 head of PTIC Angus cows and 2 head of PTIC Red Angus cows for an average price of $2604. Nutrien Livestock auctioneer Harry Carroll said the sale was similar in values to other recent sales, particularly the mated heifers. “The cows sold relative to their quality and the unmated heifers sold to exceptional values,” he said.