A DECISION to push their budget in 2010 and buy a bull that had the ability to change their Droughtmaster stud for the better has well and truly paid off for Noel and Robyn Geddes, Oasis Droughtmasters, Emerald.
The Geddes family purchased Lamont Inmate from Mac and Gayle Shann, Lamont Droughtmasters, Clermont, seven years ago for $23,000 and it was the Mac and Gayle who brought a grandson of Inmate, Oasis Dundee, for the top price at the Droughtmaster National Bull Sale of $135,000 on Tuesday.
Like the Geddes family, Gayle did break the budget a little when she secured the 22-month-old polled AI son of Oasis Winchester while husband Mac was on a fishing trip.
Dundee weighed in at 862 kilograms with a P8 and rib fat score of 12/8, scrotal circumference of 40 centimetres, and an eye muscle area of 138 square centimetres.
Ms Shann said it was the first Oasis Droughtmasters bull they had purchased and he was well worth the money they had paid.
"It's not very often you find an animal that has got everything you are looking for,” she said.
"It was just his muscling and sire appeal (we liked most)."
The couple have about 1000 Droughtmaster stud and commercial breeders on their property, Cantaur Park, with Dundee headed straight for the stud females.
The top price sale was just the start of a successful day in the ring for the Geddes family with Noel and Robyn's draft of 10 bulls averaging $33,050.
Of those ten bulls, two direct sons of Lamont Inmate averaged $15,000 while the three sons of Oasis Winchester averaged $62,666.
Oasis Winchester was sold in 2013 for $60,000 to Wirraway Droughtmasters and has been welcomed back to Oasis in partnership with Needmor Droughtmasters.
Noel and his son Adam couldn't believe the results and said before the success of Inmate's progeny they used to gross $135,000, not make it with one bull.
Adam said Dundee was impressive right from a calf.
"We loved how thick he was, his bone and head,” he said.
"He is the most correct and best bull we have ever bred."
Last year was also a successful year for the stud who sold Oasis Viking, a son of Lamont Inmate, at the Droughtmaster National Sale for $45,000 to Hamadra Droughtmasters.
The pair agreed that Lamont Inmate had set their stud up for success.
"He has turned it all around,” Noel said.
"It only takes one good bull,” Adam added.
The success continued on day two with Adam selling four of his bulls to a top of $75,000 for an Oasis Winchester son, Oasis A Thurston, purchased by Munda Reds, WA.
Read the Droughtmaster National Bull Sale report in next week's Queensland Country Life.