NIOA Pastoral’s general manager Shannon Gardner, right, presents Arrabury Pastoral’s operations managerTony Schutt with the engraved shotgun as one of the top five bidders at last year’s bull sale.
Repeat NIOA Pastoral stud bull buyer Tony Schutt has circled “September 1, Talgai Homestead” on his calendar as Arrabury Pastoral Co. continues to re-invest in its Santa Gertrudis breeding herd.
The Arrabury Pastoral Co. operations manager walked away with six stud bulls from his first visit to the multi-vendor NIOA sale in 2020, including second top price ($13,500) for NIOA Persecutor P15 (P).
He backed up last year with another two bulls, earning him a bonus engraved Adler lever shotgun as one of the top five bull bidders on the day.
More than 150 keen buyers from around the region attended that event which featured 43 bulls and 23 heifers representing genetics from 11 studs.
Mr Schutt says it’s the NIOA sale’s growing reputation for consistency that has kept him coming back.
“We’d been out of (stud stock) buying for a number of years with most of our bulls coming from the paddock,” said Mr Schutt who oversees Arrabury Pastoral’s vast breeding and fattening operations in Queensland’s Channel Country.
“We had changed our breeding program (at the time). I hadn’t been to a sale for 10 or 12 years and I was quite surprised in 2020 at the consistency of the NIOA bulls.
“When I returned in 2021, again it was that true to type that really struck me.”
With NIOA Pastoral joining forces for the first time this year with RL Pastoral’s renowned cattleman Rob Sinnamon for the newly-branded NIOA & RL Pastoral Production Sale, Mr Schutt expects the quality to continue.
“When I heard Rob had become involved with NIOA, I thought they are obviously doing something right – he’s got a proper eye for cattle,” Mr Schutt said.
“I can’t get around to every sale (but) I’ll pick out about four that I will keep going to. It (the NIOA sale) can only be going in the right direction with Rob.”
A new start time has been locked in for the on-property event with bidding to start from 2pm. The sale will be interfaced online with Auction Plus and Elite Livestock.
The highest bidder on a NIOA bull and the highest volume buyer of NIOA bulls will receive an Adler lever shotgun engraved with their cattle brand.
NIOA Santa Gertrudis manager Shannon Gardner said this year’s line-up would again feature the stand-out genetics for which it had become renowned.
“Rob is currently putting together the catalogue to offer potential buyers the very best genetics the Santa Gertrudis breed has to offer,” he said.
“We are looking forward to people coming to Talgai to view this year’s draft in the flesh but they can also participate online.
NIOA Pastoral’s general manager Shannon Gardner, right, presents Arrabury Pastoral’s operations manager Tony Schutt with the engraved shotgun as one of the top five bidders at last year’s bull sale.
Back to news