Offered by the Johnstone family of Ronelle Park Shorthorns, Lyndhurst, NSW, the rising two-year-old incited a bidding frenzy from an opening bid of $12,000.
The sale topper was eventually taken home by the Falls family of Malton Shorthorns, Blighty, NSW, with US semen rights secured by Jungels Shorthorn Farm, North Dakota.
Sired by Ronelle Park Quantum Q73 and out of Ronelle Park Wisteria N30, the roan bull was said to ooze sire appeal.
"Consideration given to keeping this one - bulls like this don't come along very often," the catalogue listing read.
Tipping the scales at 850 kilograms, the sire prospect recorded rump and rib fat of 18mm and 10mm respectively, an eye muscle area of 130 square centimetres, intramuscular fat of 7.8% and a scrotal circumference of 42cm.
Homozygous polled, the sale topper has expected progeny differences of 2.8 for birth weight, 85 for yearling weight, 13 for docility, 0.64 for rib eye area, and 0.12 for marbling.
The breed record comes less than two months after it was last broken, when a leading donor cow offered by the Spry family surpassed both the female and bull records with a price tag of $95,000.
At the time, strong competition quickly pushed Spry’s Miss Buddy M36 (P) beyond the previous female record of $72,000 set in 2006 by The Grove Legends Dale A755 from The Grove Shorthorns, Condamine, QLD.The cow also topped the previous highest price paid for a Shorthorn bull in Australia, achieved by Futurity Rapid Gain R321 in 2022 when he sold for $85,000.
Overall, the 2023 National Shorthorn Show and Sale saw 90 of 117 bulls sold for a $19,744 average.
Of the 19 females on offer, 14 sold to a top of $18,000 twice, for an average of $8286.
Two of three flush opportunities sold for an average of $8000, one PTIC recip sold for $8000, and three of five embryo packages sold for an average of $2108 per embryo.
The sale was conducted by Elders and Ray White GTSM, and interfaced by AuctionsPlus.