Sillwood Spry’s offspring on offer

A FEATURE of the Sillwood Poll Shorthorn bull sale this year is the first offering of bulls in Tasmania by Sprys Down Under S77, purchased in conjunction with Heinwaka Shorthorns in New Zealand for $70,000 at the 2023 Sprys Bull Sale.

S77 is a thick solid red bull with good temperament and depth of body. He stamps his offspring with the same traits, with both bulls and heifers showing moderate frame with excellent early growth with muscle, shape and even fat coverage.

We look forward to calving down his first 2 year old heifers this spring. We believe they will become easy doing cows, exhibiting moderate frame with excellent thickness, weight and constitution ideally suited to our Tasmanian grass fedproduction system.

The sale will also feature a top draft of bulls by our two proved sires, Sprys Emperor Q114 and Yamburgan Perceus Q311. Both bulls are proving to be excellent sires, producing offspring with growth, weight and finishing ability. At last year’s sale Perceus sons sold to a top of $10,000 to Spry’s Shorthorns, Wagga Wagga and Emperor sons sold to a top of $8,000 to the Clemons family, King Island.

The Sillwood breeding program places strong emphasis on the critical maternal traits of fertility and calving ease, with females required to calve unassisted from 2 years of age and raise a calf every year. Growth and carcase traits are selected in conjunction with maternal traits to allow both us and our clients to produce suitable feeder and finished steers for the Tasmanian grass fed programs.

These animals must be quiet, easy to handle, and grow, finish and marble well.

Performance recording is an important part of our breeding program, with large contemporary groups maximising the accuracy of performance data. The process starts with calves being weighed at birth, with further weights taken at the weaning and yearling stage.

All sale bulls and retained heifers are scanned for muscle, fat and marbling and are independently assessed.

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JOHN
AND
NANCY
BELL