Locals win top awards

By ZOE MOROZ and GREGOR HEARD, Stock & Land
September 15, 2011

Photo: Steve Hynes

THE $17,000 top-selling bull at Te Mania Angus' Walgett sale last week was one of 10 in the sale by Te Mania Berkley B1 - an Angus breed leader for seven traits which sold for $65,000 and sired the $91,000 Australian record bull, Te Mania Emperor.
The draft of 95 Te Mania bulls all cleared to average $7168 at the stud's best northern result to date, and the Berkley B1 sons averaged $9720.
Two-year-old Te Mania Elapse E312 (AI), weighed in at 805 kilograms and was a long bull with depth, thickness and a strong top line, according to its buyers.
Elapse had a longfed index of $135, a birthweight to 600-day estimated breeding value (EBV) weight range of +4.5 to +113, an eye muscle area EBV of +6.1 and intramuscular fat EBV of +2.3.
New owners, David and Kim Coulton, and their son, Andrew, Morella Agriculture, Goondiwindi, Queensland, said they were chasing the Berkley B1 lines, adding Elapse also had exceptional figures.
Morella Ag purchased six bulls to an average of $10,583 on the day which will go over the Coulton's 17,000 breeder cows.
Their draft included one bull at $14,000 twice, and one at $13,000.
Doug and Monique Thompson, "Pee Dee Creek", Bellbrook, paid to $14,000 and took two other bulls.
Meanwhile, top volume buyers included Minnamurra Pastoral Company, Gunnedah, which purchased 10 bulls to a top of $11,000 and at an average of $8000.
David Reid, of Minnamurra, said he had been buying Te Mania bulls for about eight years for his commercial operation, which included about 12,000 cows.
Michael and Annie O'Brien bought nine bulls to a top of $9500 and an average of $6889.
The O'Briens have exclusively been using Te Mania bulls since they started breeding Angus about 10 years ago.
They now have about 1600 Angus cows.
Te Mania Angus co-principal, Tom Gubbins, said it was nice to be rewarded after putting in the effort to "get the cattle right".
"There were bulls for everybody and prices were across the full range," Mr Gubbins said.
"We saw a lot of new faces and also return clients."
Mr Gubbins said it was a pleasing result considering the "inconclusive" season in the north.
This year's sale was held a month earlier than previous years, with Mr Gubbins saying the vendors felt it was a better time to host the sale.
"It's more in the bull buying season and it's before everybody is joining," he said.
Mr Gubbins was pleased to see many clients buying according to EBVs.
"There needs to be more of it in the beef industry."
Agents were Elders and Clemson Hiscox and Company, with guest auctioneer, Tony Dowe.
It was also a special occasion for Mr Dowe as it was his last sale auctioneering for Te Mania after many years.

People came from as far as the Sunshine Coast and King Island for the workshop, as well as from NSW, South Australia and across Victoria.

"I think everyone went away with a key message," Te Mania's Amanda McFarlane said.

Terry McCosker delivered a timely speech on the effect a carbon tax may have on agriculture.

Co-founder of RCS, a leading private agricultural education and training business, Mr McCosker is internationally recognised for his research work.

Mr McCosker discussed grazing management, which he divided into six principles including the importance of adequate plant rest for maximum growth and matching carrying capacity with stocking rate.

Mr McCosker suggested well grazed cattle have the ability to sequester large amounts of carbon.

"The main take-home message is there is opportunity for carbon credits in the beef industry," Te Mania's Tom Gubbins said. "Subtle changes to a business can all contribute to sequestering carbon."

Round table discussions were held on Friday with Mr McCosker and other guest speakers including David Plant, Southern Cross Genetics, who spoke on developments in artificial insemination synchronisation.

Rob Wyld discussed the advantages of online animal management software, which Te Mania is in the process of developing in order to capture data across their different properties.

Mr Gubbins provided attendees with an insight into the management of the Te Mania herd.

"There's a big advantage in cell grazing," Mr Gubbins said.

"It significantly improves the accuracy of EBV's as we can better manage comparison groups."

Team Te Mania's workshops are held each year and alternate between Mortlake and on-property around the state.

"Last year we held the workshops at Mansfield and Yea," Mr Gubbins said. "The workshops are a great way to catch up with everyone."

By Zoe Moroz, Stock & Land, March 10, 2011
*114 of 118 bulls to $91,000, av $7978

Buyers and onlookers were on the edge of their seats last Wednesday as anticipation mounted in the minutes before the Te Mania Angus southern autumn bull sale.

Te Mania's Hamish McFarlane (left) and Tom Gubbins (right), pictured with syndicate buyers who paid the Australian record price of $91,000 for Te Mania Emperor E343; Judy and Bruce Wilson, Murdeduke Angus, Winchelsea, Kelly and Tim Brittain, Storth Oaks Angus, NZ, ABS Australia's Bill Cornell and Murdeduke Angus manager, Simon Falkiner.  Photo courtesy of Stock & Land

The record price was paid by a syndicate, headed by Winchelsea-based Murdeduke Angus, ABS Australia, Aberdeen Estates, Tumut, NSW and New Zealand's Storth Oaks Angus, while the under-bidder was long-term Te Mania client, G and C Pastoral, Alice Springs, NT.

ABS Australia's beef product manager, Bill Cornell who coordinated the syndicate said it was a fight worth winning for a bull with "exceptionally good phonotype, EBVs and indexes."

"Given all of that, we needed a bull with exceptionally good contemporary data and this bull excels in ultrasound scan data, weight performance and fat levels in a contemporary group of 401 bulls," he said. "This bull represents everything we were chasing."

The son of Te Mania Berkley B1, who sold to Hazeldean Angus, Cooma, NSW, last year for $65,000, weighed in at 700 kilograms and displayed EBVs in the top 10pc of the breed including +97 and +117 for 400 and 600 day growth, +17 for milk and +2.8 for IMF.

"ABS and Murdeduke have been looking a bull like this for four years," Mr Cornell said.

"The industry has been looking for this bull for a long time, that's why he made $91,000."

Te Mania Angus director, Tom Gubbins said he was pleased the expectation was realised after plenty of talk about what the bull would make.

"The combination of phenotype, complete EBVs and Index values as well as his uncommon blood-lines, mean he can used as an outcross," Mr Gubbins said.

The bull will be sent to Total Livestock Genetics at Camperdown and will then reside at the Murdeduke stud.

"Aberdeen Estates will have display and semen rights and semen will be collected and sent to Tim and Kelly Brittain in New Zealand," Mr Cornell said.

As well as claiming the Trans-Tasman breed record, Te Mania Angus also lays claim to the breed's season high average to date, of $7978, up $2549 on the stud's 2010 average.

Of 118 bulls offered, 114 sold to gross $909,500 with four passed in selling immediately after the sale.

Robert Bulle, Ardrossan Angus, Holbrook, NSW, purchased Te Mania Equerry E895 (pictured) for the second top-price of $28,000. Photo courtesy Stock & Land

The bull also displayed EBVs in the top 10pc of the breed, including an EMA of +10.5 and $Index of $142 and $108 for long-fed and heavy grass-fed values.

"He is an exceptionally sound bull and was the highest indexing bull with the biggest EMA," Mr Bulle said.

New and repeat buyers represented each state, apart from WA, with bids through AuctionsPlus.

The Perry Family, King Island, purchased Te Mania Enamel E596 for $8000 and Morella Agricultural, Goondoowindi, QLD, purchased three lots to $11,000.

Long-term buyers, the Prowse Family, Frederick Hill, Benalla, purchased six lots to $14,500 to average $9333.

Minnamurra Pastoral Company, Wollar Wollar, NSW, took home 10 lots to a top of $16,000 to average $8500, while Cleveden Pastoral, Gundagai, NSW, put together a line of six bulls to $7500 to average $6500.

Rennylea Angus, Culcairn, NSW, partnered with Don and Cathy McRae to purchase lot 10, for $15,000 and lot 104 for $12,000.

by Don Story, Stock & Land,  10 February 2011

John and Ann McFarlane, Gowan Brae, dispersed their highly rated Angus herd at Hamilton recently.  Their PTIC breeders sold to $1700 and second calf cows and calves made $1820

Gaye and Allan Donovan, Carrawatha, Tyrendarra, were restocking with cows and calves and PTIC females from the Gowan Brae dispersal, "capitalising on generations of breeding". They bought cows and calves at $1820 and four-year-old cows PTIC for a March calving at $1200. They were pictured with their agent, Simon Hutchison, J and J Kelly, Warrnambool and his son Beau (7).

By Andrew Mole, The Weekly Times   2 February 2011 

Banking on experience: Minamurra manager Dennis Power and owner David Reid, at Te Mania last week

SOUTHERN FARMER February 2011

A super early season has unlocked phenomenal potential within the Te Mania Angus 2011 autumn on-property bull sale team.

With 130 bulls catalogued for March 2 at Mortlake.

With all this late rain, the bulls are just exploding out of their skins and weighing more than ever", Te Mania Angus director Tom Gubbins said.

He said the sale bulls are growing at an incredible rate and average a staggering $120 for the Longfed $Index, compared to the breed average of just $87.

"Our sale bulls also have an average birthweight EBV of +3.9 compared to the breed average of +4.6," Tom said .

The figures are just stacking up in favour of our most outstanding sale line up yet.

"And when you consider more than 60 bulls out of the 135 sold last March were knocked down for $4000 or less, those figures are stacking up in favour of the buyers."

Tom said Te Mania Angus has some significant star lots this year.

He said Lot 3, for example, is an exceptional son of Te Mania Berkley B1, who was recently sold to Hazeldean Angus for $65,000.

"Lot 3 is a very stylish sire of the future, very balanced with scale and great butt shape," Tom said .

"We think so much of him he has already been used in our herd for the 2010 spring joining".

"He also reflects what we believe to be a very constant breeding program, which has resulted in an even lineup with outstanding calving ease, fertility, growth and the important carcase traits."
The Team Te Mania commercial female online sale will again be staged on the evening before the bull sale.

Tom said this also provided a great opportunity to access some of the industry's leading female genetics.

He said with the industry clamouring for females to continue herd building, this sale will provide those from some of the most proven sire lines in the breed.

Te Mania Angus is also still celebrating its move to Mortlake, and the sale will again be conducted on the "big screen".

Te Mania Angus has more sires in Angus Group Breedplan which is the result of years of progeny testing through the innovative Team Te Mania program, which spans Victoria, SA and NSW.

Tom said Team Te Mania has been running since 1995 and has played a key role in accelerating the genetic profile of the nucleus herd.

Mortlake, Victoria, based Te Mania Angus has sold super sire Te Mania Berkley B1 to iconic NSW, Cooma, stud Hazeldean for $65,000. 

The sale gives Hazeldean possession of the bull and 50 pc semen marketing rights.

Described as the next big thing in the Australian Angus industry, Te Mania Berkley sons are just hitting the market. 

Te Mania Angus director Hamish McFarlane says the five sons sold at the stud's Walgett and Mortlake sales this year averaged an astonishing $10,300.

Hamish says Te Mania Berkley is a trait leader six times for calving ease direct, gestation length, 200-, 400- and 600-day growth and carcase weight.  He says the bull is also in the top one pc - or better - of the breed for nine of the 17 traits scored.  "Te Mania Berkley is also in the top one pc of the breed for all the $Index values," Hamish says.

"There simply is no other sire available on the market that covers as many bases as Berkley," he says.

"In addition Te Mania Berkley is an EU-qualified bull and we have received inquiries for his semen from New Zealand, the UK, Austria, Norway and Ireland."

Hazeldean principal Jim Litchfield says he sees Berkley as the next landmark bull in the Angus industry.

He says only occasionally a bull comes along which he describes as a watershed sire. "Some that come to mind include Scotch Cap, 036, and Traveller," Jim says.

"In their time they are just that much further ahead genetically than their contemporaries, and provide the base for the next big lift in the breed," he says.

"I think Berkley is the bull that will provide the next big lift.

"Genetic improvement is not always a straight line graph - it is more often than not a case of big lifts being followed by periods of slower gain before the next big lift.  "And Berkley is a big lift bull."

Jim says the sire's performance data can only be described as exceptional.

He says that extends from his moderate birthweight EBV of +4.7 to explosive growth EBVs which reach +103 at 400 days and +126 at 600 days.  "His carcase data puts his longfed CAAB $Index at +$153," Jim adds.

"Importantly, with all this his fertility and calving ease direct EBVs are still equally outstanding," he says.

"Te Mania Berkley also has a very quiet temperament and super sound structure - his first calves at Hazeldean are very impressive.

"It is now our plan to collect semen from him as a priority for our own use and for sale and then we will use the bull at home as a back up to our AI program, where he will feature prominently."

Jim says although the addition of Te Mania Berkley is seen as a big boost for the Hazeldean herd, he says his stud's genetic program hasn't really changed since it was started.

He says, like all other studs, it has been significantly enhanced by technology over the years and the impact of the Japanese market and developments in meat science have also had an influence.

"One thing we have steadfastly avoided is chasing fads in all our livestock breeding programs," Jim says.

"Inevitably when you follow a fad the goalposts change once you are just about there," he says.

"Our core business is providing functional, profitable bulls to the commercial beef industry and this means first of all maximising the number of live calves hitting the ground, building onto that base rapid growth rates and on top of that superior carcase data.

"It has to be in that order to make money in the beef industry. 

"One of the main reasons we had a mature age stud cow dispersal in 2008 was because our primary goal is not to provide registered bulls for other registered herds but more to provide bulls to the commercial industry.

"Hazeldean still has a number of top HBR cows and obviously there will always be some bulls produced from these that will interest other studs, but this is not the main focus for our business."

Hazeldean currently sells in SA, NSW and Queensland, and expects to market 250 bulls in 2011. Its 4000-cow herd is spread across properties in Cooma, Hay and the South-East of SA.

For a number of reasons, including drought, Hazeldean's bull numbers are back for 2011 it will still sell in SA and Queensland but there will only be a spring sale in Cooma.

Jim says while the Japanese market accelerated the growth, and popularity, of the Angus breed in Australia, it has since grown well beyond those early markets.

He says for almost 30 years the high-end Japanese market was the driving force for Angus but its expansion into key domestic markets and more export opportunities have seen the breed reach "tipping point".

"That has indisputably seen it recognised as the number 1 beef breed for the best in quality beef," Jim adds.

"This has been most recently demonstrated by the McDonald's, Hungry Jacks and Four'n'Twenty uptake of the Angus brand in their products and promotion," he says.

"So Hazeldean is focused on further improving the breed's reputation in this regard but do so with the understanding Australia's broad climatic differences require different genotypes to deal with specific environmental issues.

"This is why we have included Senepol genetics with Angus in some of the bulls we produce for northern Australia," Jim said.

Te Mania Berkley B1 was sold through Stud Stock Consultant Tony Dowe.

By Jon Condon, The Land
September 16, 2010

Selection pressure for intra-muscular fat driven through both Breedplan recording and progeny carcase testing has been one of the contributors to Rangers Valley's premium brand extension.

"We have always seen those extreme high marbling performers coming through our production system occasionally, in a random fashion, but the difference today is that they're being seen with a lot more frequency," said Rangers Valley livestock manager, Richard Eldershaw.

"The focus within the Angus seedstock industry on IMF (essentially, marbling), plus growth over the past 10 to 15 years is now producing a lot more of these high-marbling cattle in the herds we have identified and prioritised in our purchasing. The increased regularity of these elite carcases has given us the confidence to develop an extension to our normal marketing, based around these carcases." Mr Eldershaw said.

Rangers Valley recently hosted some of its elite performing feeder cattle suppliers to a visit to Brisbane, where they had the opportunity to sample some of the product during a dinner at celebrity chef, Matt Moran's upmarket Aria restaurant in the city heart.

One of these was Southern Victorian commercial Angus breeders Steve Brain and wife Susan, who mate 1200 cows each year on their property Boona, near Mumbannar. The Brains have supplied Rangers Valley with feeder cattle for the past 15 years, and consistently rate in the top 5pc of the company's suppliers on performance. They also earned CAAB's top supplier compliance award last year.  

The Brains attribute a significant part of their herd's high marbling performance to their membership of the Team Te Mania genetics and marketing program, developed by Mary and Andrew Gubbins.

"The great attribute of the program has been in sourcing carcase data from progeny passing through the meatworks, and basing their seedstock genetic selection on actual carcase merit, rather than estimates," Mr Brain said.

"Carcase data from a couple of thousand steer progeny each year has been used to drive those selection decisions. That concept made so much sense to me, and it was why we initially joined the Team Te Mania program. Previous to that, too many selection decisions were being made on fashion or beliefs, or EBVs, rather than actual outcomes."

In 15 years, the genetics in the Brains' herd has improved dramatically in a variety of traits - not just marbling. Carcase yield, daily gain and other growth measurements have also shown strong statistical improvement.

The Brains use little or no AI in their herd, instead applying natural mating using bulls available through the Team Te Mania lease program. These herd sires are within the top 10pc within the Angus breed for desirable traits.

Another of the top performing Rangers Valley livestock suppliers in Brisbane was Jon Jackson, from Toolong, near Warrnambool in Eastern Victoria. Mr Jackson is also a Team Te Mania progeny test member.

He and wife Karen run 1000 cows in a split annual calving on their heavy-carrying coastal country.

"We have always put some selection pressure on marbling - even at the expense of growth in earlier days, because back then all the heavier marbling cattle tended to be smaller in scale. Now though, it is possible to maintain marbling while getting more growth into the cattle. The overall breeding objective is really coming together," he said.

"I'd agree with Steve in that today, we can have the best of both worlds, in terms of high IMF, combined with superior growth."

With the increased accuracy possible through the progeny testing work, the rate of genetic progress was in fact increasing, rather than losing pace.

"Producing more of these extreme high marbling cattle is part of where we're working towards. It's helping take Angus beef to another level," Mr Jackson said.

While weaning, supplementation and other management interventions could also impact on ultimate marbling performance, genetics still played a major part in hitting the targets.

"If they're not going to marble, they're not going to marble. Above everything else, the genetic building blocks have to be there," he said.

Most of the Toolong steers enter the Rangers Valley feeding pens at 12 months of age averaging about 470kg, so they are given every chance to express their IMF potential. Particular sire lines are increasingly throwing the extreme high marblers that will help drive the new Rangers Valley brand project.

Article and photos courtesy of The Land

Pictured above - Rangers Valley livestock manager Richard Eldershaw, Aria head chef Ben Russell, and livestock suppliers Jon Jackson and Steve Brain admire a sample of highly marbled Rangers Valley product passing through the restaurant.

Recent sample of high-marbling Rangers Valley Angus - clockwise from right, cube roll, striploin and eye fillet.

By Tom Gubbins

With the GFC now getting further behind us and Asia recovering well, marbling beef product is gaining in demand, and mid- to long-term feed prices are on the rise.

Angus cattle are the breed of choice and within the breed, bloodlines with high marbling are in higher demand. 

Feed costs are also low at the moment, adding to the profit margins in feeding for longer.  Angus cattle are not descended from draft animals, they were founded on meat quality, so we need to continue to maintain and build on this quality product reputation. 

As cattle get older they express more marbling. 

Angus cattle grow faster than they did in the past, therefore they are slaughtered younger.  This is working against the increase in genetic marbling at a given age, so we need to place a lot of selection pressure on marbling.

At Te Mania Angus we have kept this in mind while making our breeding decisions and phenotypical marbling in our client herds (Team Te Mania) is still increasing, while improving growth and other desirable traits.

Marbling is a great way for cattle producers to differentiate themselves from the pack.  As you differentiate, you have to change your traditional selling methods. 

To be financially rewarded for producing a more specific product with a smaller market, you have to build strong relationship with players in the next level of the industry. 

A relationship that allows you to demonstrate the quality of your product, build an appreciation of that product and then reward you. 

Once you have differentiated yourself from the mainstream commodity producer, you are more like a secondary industry, value adding business, than a primary producer.

If marbling has a genetic limit, we don't appear to have reached it as yet in the Angus breed, and the higher it gets the greater the customer satisfaction gets, whether a feedlotter, processor, wholesaler, chef or consumer. 

As long as we practice balanced selection, where we select for all other important traits such as reproductive and growth performance, improving marbling is not likely to cause problems.

Genetically we can increase marbling independently of subcutaneous fat despite there being a moderate relationship between the two fat deposits.

Subcutaneous fat has many side effects of which some are positive and some are negative depending on your environment and attitude.

Recent findings by the Beef CRC maternal trials show increased genetic fat increases genetic reproduction rate (percentage of calves born) while increasing genetically the amount of food required for weight gain (Net Feed Intake). 

We can address reproduction rate issues with P8 and Rib fat EBVs in conjunction with fertility traits. 

Unfortunately the cost of this is your cow and its offspring will be less efficient all their lives, and have lower retail beef yield. 

The alternative is to subtly reduce genetically subcutaneous fat, and, if required, modify the environment before and during joining to increase animal intake and phenotypical fat.

Again this is supported by CRC research which suggests you can improve reproduction by increasing fat genetically or environmentally. 

You can then enjoy all the positive genetic correlations, with lower subcutaneous fat.

Findings from the Trangie research herd show in the same trials reducing net feed intake (increasing feed efficiency) also reduces methane production. 

Genetically-reduced fat reduces NFI, which reduces methane. This may be drawing a long bow, but agriculture has plenty of long bows drawn on it.

This all happens genetically with very small correlation between subcutaneous fat and marbling. 

By Sheena Coffey,  Stock and Land

Better data and individual herd management pushed Tonga Station, Mansfield, and Te Mania Angus stud, Mortlake, to invest in Sapien Technology software systems.

Despite being different operations - Tonga runs both a commercial herd and trading operation, but is also a member of Team Te Mania - they are able to use the same software programs to make better informed and more efficient decisions.

Managing director of Sapien Technology, Robert Wyld, who developed the software programs used - Koolcollect, which collects data, and Superkool, a central and online database that sorts and backs up all information collected - said the programs provided the opportunity for both stud and commercial operators to manage their cattle mobs on an individual basis.

"They can identify superior genetics in their herd and also quickly identify poor performing animals," Mr Wyld said.

Cattle going through the yards at Tonga Station under the direction of owner Mark Calvert-Jones have their National Livestock Identification System tag scanned and their weight is instantly recorded by software beside the crush.

"We regularly weigh all animals so we can accurately project which will be sent to the feedlot for optimum price," Mr Calvert-Jones said.  "Koolcollect makes our life so much easier".

The software is also used at pregnancy-testing time to record joining status and allows empty breeders to be drafted separately at the time of scanning. 

At Te Mania stud, where record-keeping is a vital part of management, the system allows the stud to quickly and efficiently record information without error.

"Our system enables them to keep full pedigree records and submit that data to Breedplan," Mr Wyld said.  "It makes their job a whole lot easier to record and store that information."

Tonga Station and Te Mania both use Superkool as a back-up facility and central database.

The latest component to the program, Koolperform, has already been used at Te Mania and will be released by Sapien Technology soon.

It will allow Te Mania to collect different types of reports and analyse this data and handle all Breedplan information.

Tom Gubbins, farm manager of technology and media at Te Mania, said the system had been extremely beneficial in the stud operation.

"The system follows the logic of what cattle people do; it works with them," he said.

"It saves us a lot of time and also improves the accuracy of recordings significantly because there is less human error involved in writing the wrong tag down."

By Brian Clancy, The Weekly Times

A LACK of accuracy in breeding estimates is set to delay the commercial release of DNA testing in beef.

This is according to Beef Co-operative Research Centre chief scientist Dr Mike Goddard.

Dr Goddard said the commercial release of DNA markers in breeding values could be delayed by up to another two years.

He blamed the delays on the inability to validate DNA markers against sufficient numbers of cattle with known traits.

Addressing the Team Te Mania beef field day at Habbies Howe, near Seymour, last week, Dr Goddard said meaningful results with sufficient accuracies would require testing against five times the 1000 head currently being researched.

Determination of genetic information using DNA markers was hailed as the centre-piece of the $121 million Beef CRC which commenced in 2005.

Scientists were then hopeful DNA markers would provide a third tool to complement pedigree and Breedplan estimated breeding values.

While EBVs were already used to record information on an animal's performance for traits such as marbling, net feed intake and fertility, the new-style genetic markers would incorporate this information with genome-wide genetic predictions and phenotype information collected by producers.

The scientists were hoping a "chip" containing up to 50,000 DNA markers could be matched or validated against an animal with known traits such as fertility and meat quality.

But Dr Goddard said the DNA chip was too small, and the Beef CRC was looking to a new chip with 850,000 markers.

He was also hoping to validate these markers against at least 5000 animals with tested traits.

The other obstacle for the Beef CRC was the additional cost of the larger chip.

Last December, Beef CRC chief executive Dr Heather Burrow said that on results to date, the CRC was confident it would commercialise DNA markers by 2012, accounting for at least 15 per cent of genetic variation for a range of traits such as marbling, tenderness, saleable meat yield, feed efficiency and female reproduction.

On the latest news that the CRC would be seeking to extend its testing, Dr Goddard agreed the commercial release of meaningful and accurate DNA marker technology to stud breeders was still some years away.

Sired by Te Mania Ambassador A134 and out of a Lawsons Henry VIII Y5 cow, Regent has EBVs of +106 (top 5%) for 600 day weight, +8 for Eye Muscle Area, +3.7 for Intramuscular Fat and +150 for the Longfed CAAB index.

Te Mania Angus Australia director Tom Gubbins, whose family bred Te Mania Ambassador, says these figures place Regent in the top one per cent of the breed for those traits.

Tom says Te Mania Angus identified the outstanding young bull and won a hard-fought duel against a syndicate of Queensland, NSW and Tasmanian breeders at the Tuwharetoa Angus stud dispersal at Tarcutta, NSW, on Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

According to Elders auctioneer Michael Glasser, the sale equalled the Australian sale record price paid for an Angus bull.

Regent is also in the top five pc of the breed for the heavy grassfed, shortfed domestic and terminal indices.

Tom says Regent is a "standout bull for his length of body, smooth shoulders, structural correctness and beautiful sleek coat and skin".

He says the bull's prepotency for marbling is concentrated on three sides of his pedigree and, importantly in today's seedstock market, Regent has tested free of known genetic disorders.

"This makes him stand alone as a potentially defining sire of the next generation of Australian Angus genetics," Tom says.

"But it is important people understand you do not select a sire for just one or two traits, you select a bull who sets an industry benchmark across the spectrum - from EBVs to structure," he says.

"The holy grail of the cattle business might be +4 in marbling, but if that was the only goal it could have been achieved long ago.

"Which is what is so appealing about Regent - he is the complete package, backing up his stunning figures with the attributes which we believe will make his progeny right at home in paddocks across the country.

"For example, his higher-than-desirable birthweight (+6.8) is adequately offset by his smooth shoulder and reach of neck, and -2.6 for gestation length.

"And everyone who has seen his dam agrees she is a standout herself, as a beautiful and highly-productive female.

"To top it off Regent's mature cow weight is less than his 600-day growth figure, which means he won't be producing cows which will increase a breeder's cost of production."

Tom says Regent will go straight to Total Genetics at Terang for semen collection for Te Mania New Zealand, then to Te Mania Angus' Mortlake headquarters.  He will go to Dunoon in NSW for the Autumn joining 2011.   He  will be used through both ET and AI as well as being extensively progeny tested through the Team Te Mania network of 37 herds across three states.

He says although Regent is still a young bull, his breeding and his early figures indicate he has unparalleled long-term potential and his new owners, the Te Mania Angus partnership and Holbrook-based Dunoon, expect him to quickly have a major impact in their genetic profiles.

"We are excited to be able to add Regent to the mix and I believe we have made a major statement with the lengths we went to as a syndicate to obtain this very sirey fellow," Tom adds.

"It is our hope he may go on to hold a place in the breed as influential as that of Te Mania Kelp, which was such a success for us and which we eventually sold privately for $50,000 to Hazeldean Angus, or more recently Te Mania Unlimited, which went to a NZ syndicate for $60,000," he says.