For the price of a luxury sports car, graziers are snapping up bulls as records for the prized beasts fall across the country.
In the past month, two bulls have sold for over a quarter of a million dollars each.
It is an impressive start to the spring bull-selling season, which sees graziers from across Australia flock to properties in hope of purchasing the perfect beast.
Yarrawonga Cattle Company owner Andrew Bassingthwaighte broke the Santa Gertrudis bull breed record when one of his bulls sold for $250,000 at the property's annual September bull sale.
He said the sale could not have gone better for his stud at Wallumbilla in Queensland's south-west.
"I think it's an amazing price, we're just over the moon, can't believe that we got that price," he said.
Mr Bassingthwaighte said several factors had contributed to the record-breaking prices.
"Graziers are getting paid so much money for their cattle and they've had so much feed and grass coming through, so the market is looking great for the future," he said.
"They're very confident at the moment and it's a nice time to be a bull breeder."
'Like an investment property'
It was a lot of money to spend on just one animal, so what made Mr Bassingthwaighte's bull so expensive?
"He was just really good looking and his skin was shiny and he just had a charisma about him," Mr Bassingthwaighte said.
"It was his absolute sex appeal ... that brought everyone in and that made him make that money.
"Bottom line, he was just pretty."
Mr Bassingthwaighte said a bull should always pay for itself in its first year on a farm.
"If you buy a bull for $250,000, the pressure is going to be on him," he said.
"If he has 10 calves then you have to get $25,000 for each calf."
But a bull is worth more to a farmer than just the offspring it can produce.
"You can sell semen from him, semen shares in the overseas markets, and sell shares of him to people in Australia," Mr Bassingthwaighte said
National herd rebuild underway
According to independent digital trading platform AuctionsPlus, the past few months of commercial cattle sales saw 18 out of 21 categories set new records.
In the cattle industry, strong prices are often a reflection of the confidence in the future of the beef industry.
Matt Dalgleish from Thomas Elder Markets said the number of records tumbling showed the national herd rebuild was underway.
He said the female slaughter rate of 42.7 per cent was the lowest since the 1990s.
When the indicator is less than 47 per cent of the national kill, the herd is deemed to be in a rebuild phase.
"[Conditions are] still pretty wet, still a good outlook for next year, so I think we've got the third year in a row for the opportunity to continue to rebuild," he said.
Mr Dalgleish said a lot more work was being done over a year on Estimated Breeding Values, figures that make up an estimate of an animal's true breeding value, which also contributed to the high prices.
"People are starting to really look at those much more scientific characteristics to improve and target particular traits as well," he said.
Buy now, pay later more common
In the 2020-2021 financial year, Australians spent almost $12 billion through buy now, pay later services.
These options have been increasingly taken up by the agricultural sector as cattle prices continue to rise.
Hannah Kerr from Delay Pay, a finance service aimed at farmers, said more people in agriculture were seeking flexible payment options.
"We've doubled in business in the last 12 months," she said.
The business already operates across industries like livestock, stud stock, machinery, cropping inputs and infrastructure, and is aiming to become a major part of bull sales.
"We don't expect the vendors to be selling our product but it's just supporting them with making more sales and getting customers to purchase more," Ms Kerr said.
