IN an unparalleled sequence during the 2022 spring bull selling season, there’s been an avalanche of new beef breed record prices set over the past week.

No less than four popular terminal and straightbred breeds have set new benchmarks over the past seven days – some pushing the new mark as much as $40,000 above their previous records.

Beef Central maintains a comprehensive summary of record prices for registered bulls and females across all popular beef breeds used in Australia. Click here to access.

Among the headline sales notched up in the past week:

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A new Droughtmaster bull record of $220,000 was set during the early stages of the National Droughtmaster sale in Rockhampton yesterday for Oasis Long John, sold by Adam & Shelley Geddes, Oasis Droughtmasters, Dingo QLD to Rondel Stud, Winton QLD. A second Oasis bull, O. A Cliffy, was sold earlier today for $130,000 to Hamada Droughtmasters, Bluff.

The result easily eclipsed the previous breed record of $180,000 for Glenlands Prince sold by Bruce and Val Childs, Glenlands Stud, Bouldercombe QLD to Fortus Stud, Ballogie QLD at the inaugural Glenlands on-property sale, Rockhampton back in 2012.

A new Santa Gertrudis breed record of $175,000 was set yesterday for Glenn Oaks Sterling S314 sold by Scott and Wendy Ferguson, Glen Oaks, Nobby, to Neil and Rosalie Watson, Watasanta, Tamworth, and Luke and Carly Baker, Annabranch, Wandoan at the Santa Central bull sale Clifton.

The result broke the previous record of $160,000 set just two weeks earlier for Riverina Roland Sanchez R88 sold by Rob and Lorraine Sinnamon, Riverina Santas, RL Pastoral Co to Clinton Wheatley, WA and NIOA Pastoral Co QLD at the inaugural RL Pastoral Co and NIOA Pastoral Santa sale.

Charolais breeders also witnessed a new $115,000 breed record set on Friday during the annual Palgrove Charolais, Ultrablack and Brangus bull sale near Dalveen, Queensland.

The new record-holder is Palgrove Ringo, bought by Percol Plains, McKinlay QLD. The result broke the previous record of $83,000 for Moongool Lunar Rise sold by Price family, Moongool, Yuleba Qld to David and Lynette Whitechurch, Fourway Stud, Inverell NSW, at Moongool’s annual sale in 2017.

While this list of records is limited to bulls sold at auction, special mention should be made of Rick Pisaturo’s Mandalong Chock, sold privately in 1986 for a reported $165,000 to Scott Cluning.

A few hours later at the same sale, Palgrove re-set the record books for Ultrablack bulls, selling Palgrove Revolution for $70,000 to Eric Slack-Smith, Richmond QLD. The result smashed the previous Ultrablack record of $35,000 set at last year’s Palgrove sale.

Bidders clearly agreed with Palgrove’s catalogue statement suggesting  Revolution was the best Ultrablack bull the stud has bred, to date.

Also significant in Friday’s Palgrove sale was an offering of nine Brangus bulls, which all sold to set a new breed record average sale price of $34,889, with a top of $74,000.

A few weeks earlier, a new Shorthorn bull record was set at $85,000 for Futurity Rapid Gain R321 sold by Jason Catts, Futurity Shorthorns, Kenebri NSW to Tatalia Shorthorns Moama NSW, during Futurity’s annual August bull sale.

Females trend

While female records have not been challenged as strongly as bulls in sales this month, some have gone close.

At its annual sale on Thursday, Circle 8 Angus, Marulan NSW sold an unmated heifer for $140,000, the second highest price ever recorded for an Angus female in Australia. All 78 heifers offered in the sale sold to average $20,949, an all-time record average price for any Angus female offering. Part of the reason was Circle 8’s decision to offer its entire 2021 calf drop in the sale.

The all time record for Angus females stands at $190,000 for Millah Murrah Prue M4 sold by Ross Thompson, Millah Murrah Angus, Bathurst, NSW to Brooklana Angus stud, Brooklana, NSW, at Millah Murrah’s female sale, October 2017. Illustrating how far elite Angus female prices have come, the previous record to that was just $54,000, set back in 2010.

• Beef Central maintains a comprehensive summary of record prices for registered bulls and females across all popular beef breeds used in Australia. Click here to access.