If you are marking the Riddellvue Angus Autumn Bull Sale down in your calendar, be sure to note the new address.
The Riddellvue bull unit is moving from its current base to Markwood in Victoria’s North East and will offer the same high-quality sires with unique genetics and impressive performance at the stud’s annual autumn sale in early March.
Ian Bates and the team from Riddellvue will give their current followers – plus any potential new clients – the first look at their new home during the Stock & Land Beef Week Open Day on Monday 30th January.
The lots for Riddellvue’s third annual autumn bull sale will be on display during Beef Week, before being offered for auction at the stud’s new location at the Thursday 9th March.
The new farm at Markwood will soon be decked out with new bull viewing and sale facilities – maybe not quite in time for the March offering – but principal Ian Bates is looking forward to having a custom setup for stock and clients.
“We had decided to change location for a number of different reasons, and moving north made sense,” Mr Bates said.
“It is going to benefit the stud immensely moving closer to a more cattle dense area, and we think the King Valley and Ovens Valley will open us up to a lot of potential new clients.
“It is also closer to big cattle hubs like Holbrook and Wagga Wagga in NSW, and has good access off the Hume Highway, being just 15 minutes outside of Wangaratta.”
Mr Bates is also excited about being open on a new day of Beef Week, with more studs open on the same day in the new region.
“It will give people a feel for the new area and will allow new people to come and visit if they don’t know us,” he said.
Riddellvue is coming off some of its best results yet at its recent October spring sale, selling 22 of 26 bulls to a top price of $20,000 – a new record for the stud – and an average of $12,000.
And impressively it was commercial client Dennis Heywood, Glenlock, Everton, who markets 600 to 800 weaners a year, that paid the top price for Riddellvue Entice, a Mogck Entice son.
Mr Heywood said that he had two other Riddellvue bulls that had performed very well, and the bulls were not overfed – and they did well in his area.
Which bodes well for the new home of Riddellvue – just down the road from the Heywood’s Everton property.
The Heywoods, and plenty of other Riddellvue clients, will offer weaners in the new year sales, and Mr Bates said while the wet weather had checked cattle prices, they were still in a good position and producers “can still be confident that the market is fairly secure”.
The first lot of bulls to be offered by the stud for 2023 at their new Markwood base come from a good variety of sire lines, according to Mr Bates, and are shaping up well – despite Riddellvue’s current property having quite a bit of flooding through the spring.
Those sire lines include Australian bulls Murdeduke Quarterback, Chiltern Park Moe, Clunie Range Plantation, and US imports RES Dark Fire and GAR Hometown.
Mr Bates said while US AI sire Woodhill Blueprint had a “great set of bulls” in the spring sale, it was the Murdeduke Quarterback and GAR Hometown sons which were impressing him for the upcoming Autumn offering.
Riddellvue will be amongst some of the first studs to offer Quarterback sons, with the sire being highly regarded across the industry.
It has Estimated Breeding Values in the top 2% of the breed for Intramuscular Fat and Scrotal Size, and in the top 5% for the Angus Breeding Low Feed Cost Index.
“This sale will have a very even set of bulls, with good volume and good body shape,” Mr Bates said.
“We are looking forward to being in a new district and meeting new clientele – our doors are open, and we are happy for people to come knock at any time and have a look at our cattle.”
The auction starts at the new Markwood property at 1pm Thursday 9th March and will also be running online through AuctionsPlus.
