While the US and China remain locked in talks over “the biggest trade deal ever made,” Donald Trump’s farming adviser has already sealed another lucrative piece of business.
Charles Herbster, who chairs the president’s Agriculture and Rural Advisory Committee, spent $1.51m (£1.2m) on the world’s most expensive bull.
The Nebraska rancher and Republican donor splashed out on the prize Angus cattle at a record-breaking auction in North Dakota on Saturday.
Herbster Angus Farms bought from the bull – known as “SAV America 8018” – from breeders Schaff Angus Valley.
The sale smashed the previous record of $800,000, set by another Schaff Angus Valley bull last year.
Will Bollum, a reporter for livestock publication Western Ag Reporter who was present at Sunday’s action, told ABC: "The atmosphere was going crazy, you could feel the excitement in the air, even the auctioneer said it - he's never had to say numbers that are that high.
“So it was new for everybody, and it just a very unique experience, exciting for the buyer and the contending bidder all the way up to the $1m, $1.5m mark”
According the sales brochure, $1.51m buys you a beast “with true herd bull authority – long bodied, thick, square-hipped, deep and massive with a sound structure, large scrotal and gentle disposition.”
The animal's genetics and lucrative semen account for its unprecedented price.
The bull will remain at Schaff Angus Valley, which has retained a 20 per cent share of its semen as part of the sale.
