A
ngus industry trailblazer Ian Bates of Riddellvue Angus will offer up the first Australian sons of a US bull by the same name this autumn. The Alexandra based stud has had renewed vigour and focus in recent years, with Mr Bates travelling far and wide to find the right genetic lines to introduce to the stud – and the Australian beef industry. Riddellvue Angus’ second autumn bull sale will be held on-property Wednesday 9 March, with 34 lots catalogued, and Mr Bates said 15 were suitable to put over heifers. It will be one of the first chances Australian producers have to secure sons by two leading US sires in Mogck Entice and Ferguson Trailblazer. The catalogue includes five Mogck Entice sons, a bull which came highly
recommended to Mr Bates by HCH Genetics and has American figures in the top 1 per cent for growth and docility. “He carries a fairly complete dataset but he’s also holding a good body, good bone structure and I think he’s going to make good future sires,” Mr Bates says. “A lot of other studs are now looking for semen from Entice, and our lots to be offered are an interesting, well put together line of bulls.” Ferguson Trailblazer ranks in the top 10 per cent of Expected Progeny Difference (EPD, the US version of ASBVs) for growth, docility, pregnancy rates, maternal calving ease, carcass weight and marbling. Mr Bates concentrates on US genetics from North and South Dakota, as he “knows they handle the climate well”, making sire selection more challenging
AUTUMN BULL SALE WEDNESDAY 9TH MARCH 2022 30 HBR/APR ANGUS BULLS
ON PROPERTY & ONLINE - 1PM Featuring Sons of Ferguson Trailblazer, Mogck Entice, EF Commando 1366, GAR Ashland & Coonamble Nic Nat
“I don’t get hung up on numbers, I don’t like to focus on them, I am more about structural correctness and the animal being phenotypically right,” he says. “But they (Entice and Trailblazer) are bulls that have been introduced that I think are capable of holding themselves – a lot of bulls don’t have enough strength.” The Riddellvue autumn sale will also offer twin bull calves by the $50,000 Milwillah Napa N498, out of a Premier Angus cow Mr Bates purchased at that stud’s dispersal in 2020. Having managed the well revered Anvil Angus stud down the road at Acheron from 2013 until its dispersal in 2018, Mr Bates was inspired to reinvigorate his own Riddellvue Angus stud, initially established by his parents in the 1970s.
BULLS BRED BRED TO TO PERFORM PERFORM BULLS
2ND ANNUAL
since Covid-19 has restricted international travel.
Murrindindi Guide – AUTUMN 2022 – 45
