The rural networkCattle This article is more than 5 months oldNo bull: Australian Angus stud sells for record $360,000 at auction
This article is more than 5 months oldTexas Thunderstruck becomes the most expensive bull sold in the country amid a surge in prices
An Australian Angus bull has sold for a record-breaking $360,000 – making it the most expensive bull sold in Australia.
Texas Thunderstruck T383 was described by its sellers, Texas Angus owners Ben and Wendy Mayne, as a gamechanger, having been the standout calf from a cohort of 350.
“The style and stature of this young sire is something you have to see for yourself,” the Maynes said in their catalogue comments.
“Presence, power, performance and profitability.”
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The average Angus bull sold in Australia for over $15,000 in 2022, according to market intelligence site Beef Central. Thunderbolt’s record broke the price set by a brahman bull in 2017 and became the seventh bull in the last three years to break into the top 10 sales.
Thunderbolt was bought by Macka’s Australian Black Angus Beef, who hope the bull will help them upgrade their genetic pool and improve the quality of their produce. The managing director, Robert Mackenzie, told the ABC the bull would more than pay for itself through its semen alone.
Thunderbolt is the only offspring of the famous Poss Rawhide bull to be sold in the southern hemisphere this year. The Maynes had acquired exclusive rights to Rawhide’s sperm for two years.
Thunderbolt was sold as part of the Mayne family’s annual Texas Angus sale near Warialda in northern New South Wales. It made $4m through the sale of 252 bulls at an average price of $16,764. The family previously broke a record by selling Texas Iceman R725 for $225,000 to Macka’s Angus.
Bull prices have gone up by 20% between 2021 and 2022, with a number of buy-now-pay-later vendors popping up to help farmers with the price.
High bull prices are often considered an indicator of confidence in the industry.
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The Rabobank Animal Proteins analyst Angus Gidley-Baird said the industry was rebuilding herd sizes, which meant it was well placed to increase production in future years.
“We had some very dry periods back in 2015-16 and that caused a large liquidation – a large sell-off of cattle,” he said.
“So our national herd has declined. In 2020, the seasons improved. And since 2020, we’ve had some fairly good seasons. And people have just been rebuilding numbers.”
This article was amended on 1 August 2023. A previous version quoted the average price of a bull in Australia in 2022 as being around $8,000; however, this figure was for 2020, with the average price in 2022 being closer to around $15,000.
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