HOW can anybody pay $96,000 for an unregistered herd bull?

It’s a legitimate question that’s doing the rounds of the northern beef industry today, following yesterday’s news that an unregistered Grey Brahman made what is likely to be a world-record price for any bull sold without registration or full pedigree details.

The natural poll Grey Brahman set a world record for an unregistered herd bull yesterday when he sold for $96,000. His sire was Lancefield D Don Deablo 4700 (Sc), but his dam was not identified in the catalogue.

The cynics amongst us have already suggested that a truckload of herd bulls may arrive at the buyer’s yards one day soon, bearing the same brand – but with no invoice attached.

It may be an easy, if lazy conclusion to draw, but as usual, there’s often more behind the headline than meets the eye.

For Beef Central’s readers in southern Australia, it may seem unfathomable that unregistered cattle, regardless of their phenotype*, could make so much money. How is it possible?

Firstly, it’s important to understand that the northern Australian bull breeding market is vastly different to that in the south, where Angus or Hereford bulls sold without registration are unheard of.

In the north, it’s a numbers game. Genetics is important, but unless a commercial cattle breeder has the physical population of bulls to serve a very large cow herd – often spread over vast distances – registration of an animal adds little value. It’s estimated that at least two thirds of all Brahman (and possibly Droughtmaster) bulls run in northern Australia are not registered cattle. Cost, and simplicity are part of the reason for that.

It’s not that long back when herd bulls sold at major North Queensland sales in Townsville and Charters Towers often produced similar average prices to registered bulls. Certainly this correspondent witnessed it during the 1990s.

There’s a significant population of bull breeders in northern Australia who specialise in breeding herd bulls only – sold mostly out of the paddock, in large lines. They still aim for continuous genetic improvement through sire purchases, but do not register their purebred females. Often the cows are run in multiple sire, rather than single sire herds. Some of those are later being DNA tested to identify a specific sire, at least. Many herd bulls aren’t fed before sale. All this helps keep costs down.

The vendors of yesterday’s record-setter, Kenilworth 4899, are a good example. None of the calves produced in Kelvin and Margaret Maloney’s Kenilworth Brahman bull breeding herd at Mt Coolon are registered.

Yesterday’s buyers of the record-setter, Georgetown (North Queensland) Brahman breeders Brian and Cindy Hughes sell both registered and herd bulls, but Brian Hughes said herd bulls was a growing part of their business – now representing close to 50pc of bulls sold.

It’s significant to note that the Hughes’s themselves sold a registered poll Grey Brahman bull only three lots before they bought yesterday’s record-setter during the second day of the Big Country Brahman Sale in Charters Towers.

The price? $48,000. The buyer? The Curley family, from Gypsy Plains near Cloncurry. The Curleys themselves are also dedicated herd bull producers. It demonstrates the depth of buying demand for elite bulls presently from breeders of non-registered cattle.

Horn status big factor

Apart from his visual appeal as an exceptionally well put-together Grey Brahman was the fact that the record-setter, Kenilworth 4899, was DNA tested as a homozygous poll. Natural polled Grey Brahmans exhibiting bone, muscling and conformation of this quality are always in high demand.

Added to this, the Hughes family is expanding their poll Brahman breeding operations at Lanes Creek, purchasing the entire Willtony polled Grey Brahman herd from Theodore last year. That decision is largely in response to signals from commercial bull buyers who want more polled cattle.

Significantly, the Hughes’s own registered bull sold yesterday for the top registered bull price of $48,000 was also a natural Poll.

Semen sales prospect

While semen sales are typically restricted to registered cattle, there’s nothing stopping the Hughes’s from selling semen from an unregistered bull like this if they choose to. There’s certainly been occasional, if rare examples in the past.

The record-setter is heading straight for semen collection this week. The Hughes’s plan to use him in AI programs within their own herd, as well as natural matings, and have not dismissed the prospect of semen sales to outsiders.

If semen is collected for later sale, a well-informed Brahman industry observer suggested it was likely to be sold as a “low-price, but high volume” semen bull targeted at commercial cattle breeders as well as herd bull producers.

“If people wanted to access a polled-gene bull with outstanding conformation, a bull like this would be a good vehicle to do that,” the contact said.

Pastoral companies or somebody with a fair wedge of cows for AI could be interested in some very large volumes of semen, by industry standards, for a bull like this. It could be quite commercially attractive.”

Northern cattle market confidence reaches fever-pitch

Another undeniable factor behind yesterday’s record was a background of all-time record prices for live export cattle in North Queensland and fever-pitch loading activity this week through the nearby Port of Townsville. Feeder steers for Indonesia are currently making unprecedented prices around 330c/kg liveweight ex Charters Towers, and 385c/kg this week in Darwin.

Brian Hughes said within his own herd bull clientele, few commercial buyers were ‘chasing’ registrations as a prerequisite in their purchases.

“They’re not worried about it. It’s more what they see that’s important. They trust us to keep the genetic improvement going in the parent lines,” he said.

“We’re confident we’ll recoup the purchase price over time. The polled females he leaves behind alone will add considerable value.”

“There’s certainly a lot of confidence evident in the northern cattle market,” Australian Brahman Breeders Association’s John Croker said this morning.

“It’s indicative of the fact that breeders are looking for good quality polled bulls, particularly. They’re not that easy to breed, and they’re not that easy to buy,” Mr Croker said.

Brian Hughes said despite that competitive element, he was surprised that he had had to pay so much for yesterday’s record-setter.

“But there were obviously others out there with a keen interest in him for the same reasons,” Mr Hughes said.

Underbidder on yesterday’s record setter was Tony Hayne, from Northern Vet Services in the Northern Territory.

The previous Australian record for an unregistered herd bull of any breed was $42,000, paid in 2005 by Paul Fenech from FBC Brahmans for an Elrose bull bred by Roger and Lorina Jefferis. Live exports was performing strongly at that time also.

* Phenotype (from Greek phainein, meaning “to show”, and typos, meaning “type”) is the composite of an organism’s observable characteristics or traits. Phenotype is distinct from genotype – the genetic variation between animals, which cannot be easily ‘observed.’