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Home / The Country

Gisborne Hereford studs Mokairau and Wilencote make record auction $80K bull purchase

By Murray Robertson
General reporter, specialises in emergency services and rural·Gisborne Herald·
18 Jun, 2025 04:00 AM2 mins to read

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Gisborne's two Hereford cattle studs have invested $80,000 in partnership to buy the highest priced R2 'red cattle' bull purchased in an auction in New Zealand. Photo / Matariki Herefords

Gisborne's two Hereford cattle studs have invested $80,000 in partnership to buy the highest priced R2 'red cattle' bull purchased in an auction in New Zealand. Photo / Matariki Herefords

A New Zealand record auction price of $80,000 for a Hereford bull has been paid by two Gisborne Hereford studs.

The sale equals the highest price paid for a rising two-year-old Hereford bull in the country.

The highest price paid previously for a Hereford bull was set in 1984 when Kingston Santiago from the Maungahina Stud near Masterton sold for the same amount.

That bull changed hands in a private sale, not by auction.

Wilencote Polled Herefords from Ngātapa and Mokairau Herefords from Whāngārā combined in partnership to buy the bull this week from Matariki Herefords near Kaikōura.

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The Gisborne studs purchased Lot 45 from Matariki Herefords near Kaikoura, the first bull put up in their lineup on Tuesday afternoon.   Photo / Matariki Herefords
The Gisborne studs purchased Lot 45 from Matariki Herefords near Kaikoura, the first bull put up in their lineup on Tuesday afternoon. Photo / Matariki Herefords

“He is a sound young bull with the cosmetics we need in our breed,” said Mokairau studmaster Peter Reeves.

“He’s got great temperament and a very balanced set of figures.”

Livestock agent Neville Clark and Wilencote’s former studmaster Peter Humphreys were down there and handled the purchase.

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“Both studs are over the moon to have the bull coming to Gisborne,” Reeves said.

“We are very keen to have him back in our territory and producing good seed stock.

“The bull is worth every dollar invested in him.”

Matt Humphreys, studmaster at Wilencote, said: “We are pretty excited to get these bloodlines into our herds.

“So pleased to get these proven genetics into our cattle for our commercial clients,” Humphreys said.

“We have the future of their beef breeding operations in our hands, which we take very seriously.

“Also, it’s so cool to do a partnership like this with Mokairau.

“We have been breeding Herefords alongside each other for more than 75 years.”

Clark said the studs backed each other to spend the money and buy the very best Hereford bull put up for sale anywhere in the country in the past 40 years.

The bull will be transported to Tairāwhiti in the next six weeks.

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