IT WAS a tale of two extremes at the Paringa Charolais sale last week, with certain lots selling well but others not attracting a bid.
As one onlooker noted during the bull sale: "buyers either want them or they don't."
Out of a catalogue of 56 Charolais bulls, 43 sold to a top of $7000 twice and averaged $3494.
The unjoined Charolais heifers followed a similar trend with buyers prepared to pay up to $3250 for certain picks, while others in the offering failed to sell or were knocked down at the reserve of $1500.
Paringa stud principal Tom Lawson said under the current conditions of drought and economic gloom he was pleased with how the sale went.
He said one reason for the selective bidding was that fact that many of their clients, such as Werribee Agriculture, were focused on buying bulls with good EBV figures.
"Our clients were really chasing numbers and a lot of the passed in bulls were negative for growth," he said.
Offering good growth figures were young bulls by the new overseas sire EC No Doubt, and they proved popular for Paringa. The eight No Doubt bulls sold to $5500 and averaged nearly $4000 each.
Although it was bloodlines that played a part in the equal top priced $7000 bull that sold to the Ashwood Park Charolais stud.
The bull, sired by LT Rio Bravo 3181 and boasting positive figures of 1.1 for marbling and18 for 400 day growth, had the cow Ashwood Park Miss Universe as its grand dam.
Duncan Newcomen, manager Ashwood Park, said Miss Universe was rated in the top 5pc of Charolais females and the bull offered them an outcross that would be used to breed replacement breeders for the stud.
The other $7000 bull sold to a breeder from Wangaratta. He was a son of LT Western Spur.
