The silver lining for Quarterway Angus in the state’s northeast has been seeing how their bulls – and the cattle they’ve bred – perform despite the continuing seasonal extremes in Tasmania this year.
“After a tough winter the 60 March sale bulls we are putting up have come along very well and are doing everything they are meant to be,” Trevor said.
“It is proof of the doability in the genetics lines – we had the worst year on record last year, and our bulls still held their condition and keep powering ahead.”
He puts much of this constitution down to having sourced the best genetics New Zealand has to offer over the past 15 years, including Merchiston Steakhouse 489, a bull which will have a number of grandsons in the upcoming Quarterway Annual Bull sale.
“Steakhouse has been a real success in our herds and several herds in NZ, and I hear there are only four straws of his semen left in New Zealand – the grandsons we’ve got of his are breeding the house down,” Trevor said.
Selling on Friday 14 March at the Lyndhurst Sale Shed, Waterhouse will also be progeny of Quarterway Princeton, a homebred Steakhouse son, as well as some of the first bulls by KayJay Meatpack R410 to be offered in Australia.
Easy-doing, great confirmation, solid structure and impressive hindquarter are all traits these bulls possess.
Another sire making an appearance at a sale in Australia for the first time will be sons of Turiroa 20R293, a bull Trevor purchased semen shares in.
“There’s a real trend now to go to New Zealand chasing genetics but we have been going there for 15 years,” he said.
This year we will calve down 1500 to 1600 commercial females, as they are working well for us in these hard seasons.
“Sometimes the New Zealand bred cattle lack data, but they make up for it in the paddock every time.”
That’s not to say the best Australian genetics won’t also feature in the Quarterway offering, with the first sons of Banquet Radley R060 – a bull they purchased in partnership for $62,000 – to be offered up.
“Radley is a Banquet Nutella son, which is a bull that is breeding really well for Banquet and their clients at the moment,” Trevor said.
“We will also have sons of Texas Bonus R204, another bull we have a semen share in, that has a strong dataset and is a good sound bull.”
Quality and consistency for prices that are right for the buyer is what return customers and new faces can expect at this year’s autumn sale, which saw 48 bulls reach a high of $19,000 and average $8680 last March.
Quarterway also hosts a spring sale, which cleared 44 bulls to a top of $12,000 and averaged $8317, showing the stability of the stud’s market despite the poor conditions.
Trevor is confident he and his clients will soon be rewarded for selecting the best genetics, despite current seasonal and market hurdles.
“The prospects for beef producers have never been better – there are record prices in the US and not many are taking notice but there is a shortage of beef in the UK and Europe.
“There will likely be a global beef shortage, we just haven’t got the trigger for a price increase in Australia yet, which is probably just seasonal, but it will come in the not-too-distant future in my opinion,” he said.
Buyers will be spoilt for choice with the 60 Angus bulls, 18-months to two-year-old, offered at the on-property Quarterway sale, on Friday 14 March from 1pm at their sale complex via Waterhouse, Tasmania, and interfaced with Auctionsplus.
Any bull purchased at the sale can be delivered for free Tasmania wide, including King and Flinders Islands, as well as to Melbourne, Victoria.
