Turihaua stud shines at East Coast Angus Bull Week with record-equalling sale

The East Coast Angus Bull Week has been another resounding success with near total clearances across all the studs, further evidence of the esteem in which stud black cattle from this region are held. These guys (above), wandering sedately into the sunset back to their paddock for the night, were the first group to go under the hammer at the Turihaua sale on Tuesday evening. One of them sold for a Turihaua record-equalling $72,000 to Tangihau Angus at Rere. Pictures by Murray Robertson

The Gisborne component of East Coast Angus Bull Week ended on an absolute high on Tuesday afternoon when the Turihaua stud produced a record-equalling top price that headlined another excellent sale.

Turihaua Angus got one of their rising-two-year-old bulls away for  the princely sum of $72,000, which equalled the stud’s best ever high price recorded last year.

Lot 2 attracted firecracker bidding from a number of bidders that rocketed up quickly to the best price paid for a young bull in the Gisborne district this season.

Dean McHardy and the team from Tangihau Angus were the successful bidders.

“It was a really nice bull, with a bit of an X factor,” was how auctioneer Neville Clark described him.

“He’s a bit out of the box, something a bit different to what we’ve seen from Turihaua, and that’s what people went for.”

Studmaster Paul Williams said the bull was a standout right from when he was a calf.

“He has shown all the attributes that our stud is looking for and we’re really excited that he’s staying local, at Tangihau.”

Turihaua sold another bull for $30,000.

Of the 72 bulls put up for auction, 70 sold, which kept the momentum going nicely when it comes to almost total clearances across the region’s Angus studs since the sales started for them last Friday.

Turihaua’s sale average was $10,792.

In his welcome before the action started, Paul Williams said the region had had a really testing time and he could not recall a period like  it with the weather.

“It’s been pretty feral.”

On that note he added a shout- out to the work of the Hear4U team’s Krissy Mackintosh.

“If you know of someone struggling, get them to reach out to her.”

Paul said they were proud of the line-up of bulls presented. He felt there would be something there for everyone, and that’s how it turned out.

Neville Clark described it as a “wonderful” sale.

“It was nice to see a record-equalling top price for the stud.

“But also great to see that the commercial guys could get a quality bull for $5000 to $12,000, that will benefit their operations without having to spend too much.

“I thought the sale had a nice tone to it,” he said.

Paul Williams said it felt really rewarding to get such a good clearance rate.

“There was something there for everyone, which is what we want.”

PGG Wrightson genetics representative Emma Pollitt summed it up pretty well with, “it was another bloody good show!”

“They were like peas in a pod, those bulls,” she said.

“It’s unreal how consistent they are, and a real credit to the Turihaua team.”