Last June Wairarapa farmer Keith Higgins paid $161,000 for an Angus bull from a renowned Gisborne stud.<\/p>\n
Ahead of this season’s autumn bull sales Higgins told RNZ, despite the eye watering price tag, his top sire was worth every cent.<\/p>\n
He’s satisfied with the purchase which set the national price record.<\/p>\n
“Everything’s gone extremely well,” Higgins said.<\/p>\n
“He’s parked in the paddock here, he’s had a great season with his females.”<\/p>\n
Higgins bought Tangihau U418 at auction during the East Coast Angus bull week – which generated $8.6 million, up nearly $3.7m on the year before.<\/p>\n
During the auction he outbid the competition, with plans to take the bull home to his Oregon Angus farm near Masterton for its breeding and artificial insemination programme.<\/p>\n
So how could he tell it was the right match?<\/p>\n
![\"Tangihau](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tangihau-angus-yearling-bulls-december-2025-E2M5UXJ2PJD7VFLDLV32PTUKFA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Tangihau Angus yearling bulls, December 2025. Source Gianina Schwanecke \/ Country Life (Source: rnz.co.nz)<\/p>\n
“It depends how you can get that bull to blend in with your programme,” Higgins said.<\/p>\n
“For us this bull was exactly the style with what we breed with now in our females, but he’s an an outcross, he’s a different bloodline.<\/p>\n
“That was the big attraction, not just his quality and type.”<\/p>\n
This sales season Higgins won’t be getting his chequebook out after downsizing from 570 hectares to a smaller 60 hectare property.<\/p>\n
“I’ll be having a pretty quiet season this year,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I don’t really require a big high-priced bull because I’ve sold all my cows. I’m just looking for a couple of yearling bulls. I’m taking all my calves with me to my smaller block.”<\/p>\n
![\"At](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/at-tangihau-angus-bulls-are-sold-via-on-farm-sales-each-june-B7NALAVT6FD4VMYST44F25GAPQ.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
At Tangihau Angus bulls are sold via on-farm sales each June, with a custom sale barn holding up to 300 people. Source: Gianina Schwanecke \/ Country Life (Source: rnz.co.nz)<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of confidence in the sheep and beef industry and it’s fantastic to see it,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s plenty of great feeling and I hope it continues for a few years yet because we need it.”<\/p>\n
PGG Wrightson auctioneer Neville Clark said he remembers the excitement of the auction day.<\/p>\n
“That’s all you really want. You want to buy a bull and two months later, five or six months later say ‘I bought the bull I wanted and I’m happy.’ That’s the perfect result.”<\/p>\n
Autumn bull sales season upon us<\/p>\n
Last year’s sales attracted big crowds, full clearances and staggering prices.<\/p>\n
Auctions are now kicking off with sales around the country through until late next month.<\/p>\n
“You look at what’s happening around the world with beef cow numbers,” Clark said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got the three biggest countries in the world going into a herd rebuild – America, Australia and Brazil. So the situation for our beef looks exceptional.”<\/p>\n
Clark said there’s growing interest in online bidding, but most farmers prefer to attend an auction in person.<\/p>\n
But if that doesn’t suit, they can arrange an inspection ahead of the sales day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The buyer of a record-breaking bull says it’s delivering strong returns nearly a year after a landmark purchase.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,14934,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-421692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-animals","tag-farming","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}