The Annual Whangara Bull sale was our first real opportunity to make our mark and we were thrilled with the result and humbled by the turn-out.

With 27 rising two-year-old bulls put up for sale – all but two of them sold for a sale high price of $11,500 and an average of $7680. You can read our full 2021 sale results at the end of this article.

Bull season wasn’t just about selling for us – over the past two months we have secured some really strong genetics from around the country as well as across the ditch – including securing the exclusive New Zealand semen rights to top Australian sire, Millah Murrah REMBRANDT R48, until the end of 2023.

The purchase of this $240,000 second-top priced sire, via a three-stud syndicate, marks a milestone achievement. We are really excited by what he brings to the mix in structure and type, which is strongly backed up by impressive performance and a great set of figures.

The Millah Murrah Angus sale, held on farm near Bathurst NSW, smashed breed and all-breed industry records. The well-known stud sold all 118 bulls offered for an all-breeds record average of $34,220, turning over just north of $4 million – so we certainly feel privileged to have secured some of their top genetics.

In addition to REMBRANDT R48, we further bolstered our genetics toolbox through the purchase of five other bulls as well as a 50% share in another. We secured four top priced bulls from around the country, including one from Te Mania Angus which we purchased in partnership with neighbouring stud, Turihaua Angus.

The opportunity to work alongside such a prominent and highly respected Angus stud such as Turihahau is a real honour and a partnership we really look forward to growing. Turihaua has been long known for the structural integrity and consistent type of its highly sought-after bulls, which is exactly what we are striving to deliver for our clients.

From the outset, we’ve been very forthcoming about the fact we are steadfastly committed to securing the best genetics available to take our operation, and consequently that of our commercial clients, to the next level.

When it comes to purchasing bulls to further our herd, figures play a crucial role in our decisions, with EBV accuracies becoming increasingly higher in today’s world. This obviously makes them a far more reliable way of increasing performance and, in turn, the bottom line for commercial farmers. With an increased emphasis on EBVs however, our clients can rest assured we will never compromise on structure, docility, constitution and type.

We believe you don’t have to sacrifice structure to achieve high performance, and we endeavour to prove that with the high-quality genetics we have brought into our programme.

We have had a great first six months with Whangara, and as we look ahead to the future, we are focussed on continuing to nurture our relationships with clients and working closely with them help them take their commercial operation to the highest level.

Though we are new to fold as Angus breeders, we aren’t new to the region and the terrain. We are well aware East Coast cows have to work hard all year round and still raise a good calf each season, so anyone involved in this industry knows calving ease and fertility are essential here.

This is of course a focus for us; however, the buck doesn’t stop there. The calf that she produces then must have the genetic potential to go on and yield a high-quality carcase, which is especially important now with substantial premiums being paid for carcasses that meet the right criteria.

We have an ambitious vision for our breeding programme that aspires to deliver genetics to our clients that will support the full picture – from fertility and calving to the best premiums at the end of the chain.

We hope our work to date has illustrated how committed we are to realising this vision and we look forward to working alongside our clients, both existing and new, as we continue to move towards this exciting future.