Millah Murrah prices bloom
Coutresy The Land, page 4, 27/4/2023, by Andrew Norris
If the beef industry had been harbouring any doubts about confidence in market-leading genetics, they have been quelled.
The owners of Millah Murrah Angus, the Thompson family of Goonamurrah, Bathurst, and co-owner, Trent Walder and family, Culburra, SA, offered a total of 170 cows with calves, pregnancy-tested-in-calf cows and heifers, of which 100 per cent sold at auction.
These topped at $140,000 and averaged $29,730 for a $5,054,100 gross in what is possibly a world record average price for a sale with more than 100 females.
While the top price was $50,000 shy of the $190,000 paid in 2017 for Millah Prue M4 at the stud’s previous female sale, also the Australian all-breeds record female price, this year’s average more than doubled that sale’s average price of $13,709 for 234 lots.
It also exceeds the recent record $20,950 average price reached last year for 78 heifers offered by the Cooper family’s circle 8 stud at Marulan.
To reach such heights, the bids at Millah Murrah held up throughout the categories, including cows with calves, pregnancy-tested-in-calf cows and PTIC heifers, to still be hitting $22,000 for the closing lots.
All 96 cows with calves sold to average $36,445, 14 PTIC cows sold to $45,000 to average $21,786 and 60 PTIC heifers sold to $80,000 to average $24,367.
The star of the show was the $140,000 Millah Murrah Flower N30. Not only did she set the tone of the sale, but a daughter also made $100,000 and she was granddam to several other price leaders at the historical event.
Among related attractions were offspring of her son, Millah Murrah Quartz Q29, the $42,000 second top-priced bull at the stud’s sale.
The auctioneers had their work cut out, with Paul Dooley, Tamworth, selling 146 lots which grossed $4,267,100 and also Elders studstock’s Ross Milne, who sold 24 lots through the middle to total $787,000 including the $100,000 Flower S121 and the $60,000 Rado S51, with all lots sold in about three-and-a-half hours.
The top-priced cow, Flower N30, was a daughter of Millah Murrah Klooney K42, himself an $80,000 bull at the stud’s 2015 bull sale.
However, as she was offered as a half share in embryo production only, with physical possession of herself and her bull calf remaining with Millah Murrah, her nominal value is effectively as much as $280,000, arguably making her the most expensive cow in the country.
At six, Flower N30 had already grossed more than $40,000 in embryos, and was one of many females the stud had flushed prior to being offered through this sale.
A $140k embryo share
Millah Murrah averages $29,730
Coutresy The Land, page 53, 27/4/2023, by Andrew Norris
Confidence in the Millah Murrah Angus herd was put to the test last Thursday and if the strength of bidding on the 170 lots was an indicator, it passed with flying colours.
Millah Murrah owners, the Thompson family, Bathurst and co-owner, Trent Walker, Culburra, SA, sold all lots offered to a $140,000 top and $29,730 average in what is considered a world record average price for a sale exceeding 100 females.
The 96 cows with calves averaged $36,445, 14 PTIC cows sold to $45,000 to average $21786 and 60 PTIC heifers sold to $80,000 to average $24,367.
The $140,000 lot, Millah Murrah Flower N30, was also the dam of one of two $100,000 lot, Millah Murrah Flower R95. The other $100,000 lot, Millah Murrah Flower S121, was bred from Flower P10 and sired by Millah Murrah Quartz Q29, a son of Flower N30.
N30 was also the dam of Flower R118, which made $80,000, the maternal grandam of Flower S13, and Flower S47 (via her sire, Quartz Q29), both of which made $90,000.
Another granddaughter, via Quartz, Flower S61, was one of two lots to make $70,000, the other being Paratrooper P15 daughter, Millah Murrah Prue S166.
In the PTIC heifers, Rado S267 made $80,000 and Prue N151 made $70,000. Both Paratrooper daughters.
Flower N30, by the $80,000 Millah Murrah Klooney K42, was offered as a half share in embryo production, while full physical possession of her and her bull calf, by Rector R53, remains with Millah Murrah.
N30 had already grossed more than $40,000 in embryos.
Her new owner, Lisa Clune, Edengate, Manjimup, WA, put together a draft of females to begin a new stud. She runs a cattle and horticulture operation and her 13 lots that averaged $45,692, also included the $60,000 Millah Murrah Rado S51, by Quartz.
“At the end of the day I’ve got a great passion and I just want to get in quietly,” she said.
Meanwhile, the first of the two $100,000 females, Flower R95, by Paratrooper P15, sold to Chris Paterson, Heart Angus, Tamworth.
R95 was flushed as a heifer and again post calving and offered with a Rector R53 heifer calf. This was one of six lots sold to Heat Angus to average $36,000.
The second $100,000 female, Flower S121, sold to Coolie Angus, Merriwa, as one of three to average $67,333 and included the $70,000 Millah Murrah Prue S166, by Paratrooper P15.
S121, by Quartz Q29, was offered with a standout Rector R53 son.
Sarah and Jamie Edmonds, Coolie Angus, previous buyers at Millah Murrah, were shopping for donors.
“Ross’ genetics are really foolproof for a stud like ours, “Mr Edmonds said.
Their $70,000 Prue S166 was from Kruse Time daughter, Prue N151, a granddaughter of Prue F141, who was also the dam of the $190,000 Prue M4, who topped Millah Murrah’s 2017 female sale.
Trevor Nash, New Turee, Cassilis, took 10 lots to $90,000 to average $43,000, while Rosemount Pastoral, Newbridge, paid to $26,000, twice, for six lots to average $23,333.
New Turee’s $90,000 was for Flower S47, by Quartz Q29 and from LD Capitalist 316 daughter, Millah Murrah Flower Q31. S47, with a Rector R53 heifer calf, was flushed as a maiden and had Winton Lad 6H, VPI Lord Pariot, Henry VIII and Woody W100 in her pedigree.
Tivoli Angus, Merriwa, bought two to $90,000, for the Millah Murrah Nugget daughter Flower S13, to average $48,667; Springwaters Angus, Boorowa, bought four to $40,000 to average $32,500; Hyline Angus, Bathurst, bought six lots to $40,000 to average $27,333; JT Angus, Scone, bought six to $46,000 to average $23,667; Young Stud, Rosabrook, WA, bought six to $22,000, three times, to average $19,667; and Blackjack Angus, Brandy Hill near Seaham, bought four to $30,000 to average $26,500.
As an emotional Ross Thompson absorbed the result, he said a lot of effort went into the stud’s genetics and he saw everything the stud used.
“Some of those results were just fantastic – lot 11 (N30), that was wonderful recognition of her daughter,” her said.
In explaining the offering, he said it was a “whole different feeling putting up a set of cows…they’re our capital and there’s a whole lot of emotion in them”.
The sale was run by Elders, interfaced online via Elite Auctions, with Paul Dooley, Tamworth, and Elders studstock’s Ross Milne, as auctioneers.
