Cattle prices could not stay up forever.
- Rick Horspole
There was none of the excitement about high prices at this year’s Claremont Angus bull sale at Woolsthorpe that was seen at the stud’s bull sale last year.
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The average price paid at this year’s sale on Monday, one of the front runners this year in the annual series of south-west bull sales, was $3713.41c, down from the $4708 average last year when the cattle market was running red hot.
This year’s lower average reflected the easing of prime cattle prices since last February’s sale and the buyer of the stud’s top-priced $6000 bull this year took a similar view.
Rick Horspole, of Leslie Manor near Camperdown, said he expected cattle prices to drop further this year after the highs reached in the past 12 months.
He anticipated cattle prices would settle down and be “all right.”
The high cattle prices of the past had dropped because they “could not stay up forever,” Mr Horspole said.
He said he had paid $6000 for the 916 kilogram 23-month old Claremont Blacks M670 because it was “a big solid bull that had everything covered.”
Mr Horspole will use the bull in his beef enterprise that principally produces steers that are sold to feedlots.
He is a long-time buyer of Claremont Angus bulls.
The stud sold 42 of the 48 bulls it offered for sale this year.
Claremont Angus co-principal Graeme Glasgow described the sale as a “good solid one” and he was happy with the result.
Mr Glasgow said the bulls “had looked a treat” and the sale had attracted many long-standing clients.
Many of Claremont Angus’s long standing clients were cattle producers who sold cattle weaners to the local market, he said.
Mr Glasgow said the stud sourced Angus genetics from throughout the world to produce bulls that had the best genetics available.
Co-principal Liz Glasgow said the stud also put a “reasonable commercial price on its bulls so they were affordable to everybody.”
Mr Glasgow said many buyers complimented the stud on the quiet temperament of its bulls.
Some of the successful bids at Monday’s sale were made online through AuctionsPlus, the second time Claremont Angus has used the online service for its bull sale.
Mr Glasgow said getting bids online added to the competition at the stud’s annual bull sales, which have been held for 11 years.
