Palgrove proved its dominance in the Ultrablack auction world, this time on the Beef Australia stage, selling to a packed house at the First of Our Finest sale.
A change of venue due to rainfall did little to dampen the spirits, and eagerness, of buyers, who packed into the Rockhampton Showgrounds pavilion for a chance at taking home the highly sought after genetics.
It was a special sale for the Palgrove stud, in offering its entire show team from Beef 2024, including first access to a selection of their elite Ultrablack females.
Culminating in a gross of $341,000 and full clearance of 14 lots, four bulls sold to an average of $24,500, while 10 females averaged $24,300.
A top price of $40,000 was outlaid by the Laycock family of High Country Rural, Eskdale, for the lot five bull, Palgrove Untouchable.
A 13-month-old son of Palgrove Quality Time ET, out of Barr G Mittagong J67, the homozygous polled, homozygous black sire weighed in at 608 kilograms, with an EMA of 110 square centimetres, also measuring 13 and nine millimetres in the rump and rib, respectively.
Buyer spokesperson Steph Laycock said the sale was the perfect opportunity for their family to invest in quality genetics as an introduction to the Ultrablack breed.
"We're just getting started into the Ultrablacks so we're really looking for cornerstone bulls and females to kickstart the operation," she said.
"We're hoping to go into genetics and IVF work, so we wanted a really quality animal to start that.
"For such a young calf, the length and scale of him, and the fact that he was almost the same growth for age as the older bulls there, was what stood out.
"He had a lot of strength in his breeding as well, so we're really keen to see him mature out and see how he's going to go in the future."
Also taking home two heifers, Palgrove la Mila S129 for $26,000 and Palgrove Kaharau T942 for $22,000, the Laycocks have big plans for their new purchases.
"We also bought females tonight as well, so that will be the start of our herd. We plan to do IVF with them in the future and utilise this bull's genetics in that program, as well as in our genetics operation," Steph said.
"We just really like the commercial relevance of the Ultrablacks, they've got those British characteristics of the Angus, which are the qualities that the domestic market is chasing, but they've also got the added softness and do-ability of the Brahman.
"We're really liking that combination of breeds, and you can see the quality of the cattle in this sale here today, so we're really excited to breed them ourselves."
Top of the females was Palgrove Wiven T747, purchased for $32,000 by Robert and Anna Hick, Hick Grazing Group, Julia Creek.
Also homozygous polled and black, the 21-month-old daughter of Palgrove Quality Time ET, out of Anvil Wivem P300, was preg-tested in calf to GACC Data Bank, with the calf expected to be one of the notable sire's first progeny to be born in Australia.
Palgrove's Ben Noller said the sale exceeded their expectations.
"The interest in our Ultrablack program has grown significantly in recent years and this was amplified through our week at Beef Australia," he said.
"It was the first time the Ultrablack breed was shown on their own at Beef. Palgrove doesn't normally show cattle but wanted to support this significant milestone by taking a team, which all sold on Thursday night.
"We had never offered the front top end of our Ultrablack females. Both stud and commercial buyers were eager to make the most of the opportunity with the female section attracting plenty of attention.
"For me it was exciting to see repeat buyers support the event, showing their confidence in our program but also highlighting to us that what we are doing is working for them."
The sale was conducted by Hourn & Bishop, and simulcast by Auctions Plus, with Wayne York as auctioneer.
