>
Semen from Australia’s most expensive bull sells for eye-popping price at auction
- Semen from Australia’s most expensive bull sells for $24,000
- 10 straws of semen were purchased for $2,400 each
Semen from Australia’s most expensive bull sold for a staggering $24,000 at auction with buyers saying they “would have paid more”.
North Queensland ranchers Mark and Pam Prichard, looking to bolster their herd, purchased premium semen at the Big Country Brahman sale in Charters Towers, Queensland, from a record-breaking bull named NCC Justified.
The seven-year-old gray Brahman broke a national record in 2017 when he sold for the bullish price of $325,000 to Rodger and Lorena Jefferis of Elrose Brahman Stud in Cloncurry in Queensland.
On Tuesday, the couple unloaded 10 straws of his semen, worth $2,400 each.
Semen from Australia’s most expensive bull, NCC Justified (pictured), sold for a staggering amount, but buyers say they “would have paid more”.
Surprisingly, buyers of the bull’s seed said they were willing to shell out much more.
“I’ve had my eye on that bull for quite some time,” Pritchard told ABC News.
‘We are a new stallion and genetics is our main focus. I was very happy to be able to buy those straws and have them in our inventory.’
At the sale in rural Queensland, hundreds of people turned out to see the product on sale, as many tried to get hold of some premium semen.
Among the items for sale were embryos and semen, with the semen sold for straw.
The buyer bought 10 straws of the prized bull seed for $24,000 at the Big Country Brahman Sale in Charters Towers, Queensland
Straws are plastic vials that contain a small amount of semen diluted and frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Straws sell for as little as $10 to thousands of dollars.
Rural Queensland sale organizer Shaun Flanagan said the $24,000 sale showed the value of high-quality genetics for IVF purposes, with one drop of semen capable of producing close to a dozen calves.
The sperm list indicated the bull was an “outstanding individual and ‘world meat animal.’
“Australia’s all-breed bull with record price of $325,000, a rare combination of breed character, sire appeal, length, depth, bone, muscle and balance,” it read.
“His phenomenal phenotype is aided by an outstanding internationally mixed pedigree, with great breeds from the US, South Africa and Australia.”