Predictability and consistency from the first pen to the last is what buyers can expect at the Quarterway Angus annual spring sale in September.
Principal Trevor Hall has been breeding cattle for close to half a century, and he prides himself on offering the same high quality in every single one of the bulls to be offered next month.
“We will offer about 50 bulls in the sale, and it is a very even line, there is little difference between the first and the last pen,” he said.
“The bulls are looking brilliant, and they are that even line we want that offers so much predictability.”
Prominent sires Millah Murrah Quixote Q96 – a bull in the top 3% of the breed for Angus Breeding Index – and Pathfinder Prophet Q400 continue to perform at Quarterway, with a larger run of sons of those bulls to be offered in this sale, along with progeny of Nampara Junior Q148, a bull purchased for $40,000.
“And there will also be bulls by homebred sire Quarterway Q11 and out of donor cow Quarterway F49, one of the best cows we’ve ever bred who is still going strong in the herd at 14 years of age,” Trevor added.
“There will be some outcross genetics in the lineup for anyone looking for anything a bit out of the mainstream, and as always we like a good hindquarter and plenty of length and depth – these bulls won’t disappoint in that department.”
The sale will see both two-year-old and yearling bulls available, with the split calving at Quarterway allowing them to offer true spring lines of bulls – not seconds that didn’t make the cut from the autumn sale.
Regardless of the birth date, the bulls will showcase the long-term breeding philosophy at Quarterway.
“Sires must be structurally sound with outstanding temperaments, loads of muscle, very sound & phenotypically well put together, predictable with proven longevity, loads of thickness and strong carcass data,” Trevor said.
“Rather than follow the trends we stick to a time-proven formula, producing cattle with all the right attributes that meet our core philosophy of breeding your profit.”
And they are showing the herd’s usual resilience to conditions, with Trevor describing this year as the “worst season I’ve seen in 45 years of farming in my own right”.
“It has been dry since spring 2023, our first decent rain was three weeks ago,” he said.
“Now we had four to five inches from Friday to Monday last weekend (end of July) and our country around Scottsdale is wet, while the country on the coast isn’t wet yet but has good moisture.”
The tough seasons over the past 12 months have led to plenty of value being available at Quarterway in recent sales, with 34 bulls averaging $7000 last spring, while in the autumn 48 bulls averaged $8680.
However, both the rain and improvements in the cattle market are bringing about more optimism in the industry this spring.
“A well-regarded market commentator has predicted the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator should rise by about 30% by Christmas, which should put it up around the 800-900c/kg mark, which will put the industry back where it needs to be,” Trevor said.
The Quarterway sale will kick off at 1pm on Thursday 12 September at their sale complex on Lyndhurst, 2235 Waterhouse Road, Waterhouse in northeast Tasmania.
Buyers will also be able to bid with confidence on AuctionsPlus with Quarterway offering free delivery Tasmanian wide, to both King and Flinders Islands, and to Melbourne, Victoria.
