It’s believed Banquet Tom Cruise T220 broke the Victorian bull record Thursday afternoon, selling for a whopping $230,000 online.
Bannaby Angus, Taralga, NSW, snapped up its first ever bull purchase from Banquet Angus at its Autumn Bull and Female Sale via AuctionsPlus, which interfaced into the live sale at Mortlake.
The action kicked off with an online bid of $50,000, with a steady climb to $80,000 via a mixture of online and in-person bids. From there two online bidders went head to head, with a Western Australia party eventually out-bid by Bannaby Angus Principal Keith Kerridge.
Mr Kerridge conducted his bidding from the comfort of his farm in the Southern Highlands - he said once you attended a few bull sales they were all the same.
He quipped that it wasn’t the name that attracted him to Tom Cruise, rather it was his numbers and pedigree.
Tom Cruise T220 is sired by Ben Nevis Rambo R230 with a maternal pedigree of Banquet Quiet R329 and comes from a famous family of sorts.
Check out Banquet Tom Cruise T220's pre-sale video.
His sire, Ben Nevis Rambo R230 was purchased in partnership for $70,000 in 2021. Rambo's Paternal Granddam, Jean H215 was the top cow at Ben Nevis's Female Sale selling for an Australian Angus cow record of $82,000 to Bannaby and Banquet Angus in 2020.
“If you want serious maternal power Tom Cruise has got it, with Jean H215 being Ben Nevis's favourite cow and Granddam Quiet Y091 being one of Banquet's most successful cows,” the sale notes read.
The data was also impressive: “No other bull in the Angus database can match his combination of short gestation (-9.5), low birth (+2.9), explosive growth (+144), high milk (+22), large scrotal (+3.4), exception docility (+42), large EMA (+7.0) and impressive IMF (+4.3).”
Tom Cruise will be put to work as a backup bull for Bannaby for the spring 2024 joining and will also be a sire in the stud’s embryo transfer program and potentially semen sales.
Mr Kerridge said the bull was definitely his dearest bull purchase, but that he had bought Milwillah Sergeant S791 for $190,000 last September.
He wasn’t sure about the Victorian record, but said he wouldn't be surprised if it was.
The impressive sale would have broken Angus records just a few years ago, but the most expensive bull to be sold in Australia remains Texas Thunderstruck T383, which was bought by Macka’s Angus last July for $360,000.
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The auction achieved a 100% clearance for an overall average of $10,960 and an online average of $28,000.
There were 499 logins during the auction, with 179 online bids, across 66 lots, placed from 18 bidders – 11 of whom were successful.
The catalogue was viewed 3835 times.