Queensland vendor Darren Castle from Bar Boot Brahmans at Boyneside, near Kingaroy, with agent Todd Andrews, from Northern Rural Supplies, looking over Mr Castle’s $20,000 top priced poll Grey Brahman after the Fitzroy Crossing sale on Friday.

THE boom-times in cattle and live export prices were reflected in the nation’s most remote bull sale held at Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley on Friday.

The annual multi-breed Fitzroy Crossing Bull Sale attracted a large crowd this year, with sales across the Kimberley, Pilbara, Gascoyne and Perth regions in Western Australia, as well as across the border into the Northern Territory and even back into Queensland.

There were 34 registered bidders, ranging from small operators up to companies running 40,000 breeders or more.

For the first time the sale grossed a little over $1 million, despite fewer catalogue entries (100 percent clearance of 174 registered and herd bulls offered) being sold than some earlier years.

Average price of $6600 set a new record, up about $1500 on the previous benchmark sale average set two years ago. Only a handful of bulls were sold at the $3500 upset price.

All the entries were sourced out of Queensland studs, with some vendors travelling more than 4000km, from as far south as Surat, Augathella and Dalby, to present cattle for sale.

“The standard of bulls coming over from Queensland just gets better and better, but the result also obviously reflected the price of cattle being seen this year across northern Australia,” agent Todd Andrews, from Northern Rural Supplies told Beef Central.

Droughtmasters dominated the offering with about 70 bulls, but the selection also included 75 red and grey Brahmans, plus some Charbrays and Queenslander (Red Brahman x Droughtmaster) bulls.

$2000 premium seen for polls

A clear trend in this year’s market was cattle showing poll genetics, attracting a clear premium worth perhaps $2000 a head for good poll bulls, Mr Andrews said. Most of the poll entries were seen among Droughtmaster and Brahman entries.

Droughtmasters led the averages again this year, averaging around $7000, while Grey Brahmans and Queenslanders also lifted in average price. One vendor’s poll Grey Brahman offering averaged around $11,000 each.

Three bulls went back into Queensland, including the $20,000 top priced Grey Brahman offered by Darren Castle from Bar Boot Brahmans at Boyneside, near Kingaroy.

Some BJD issues emerged over the past three months leading up to the sale, due to sequence of rule changes by the WA government, adding additional cost and testing requirements for Queensland vendors this year.

Because of COVID issues, some Queensland vendors spent the past month in the Territory and WA to make sure they did not miss the chance to attend.