The spotlight was on Herefords this year at the National Western Stock Show (NWSS) in Denver as the Mile High Night Hereford Sale continues to be a highlight of the event. This year it was Jan. 16 and once again broke records on the stadium floor.

“The 2015 Mile High Night Hereford Sale was one for the NWSS record books,” says Marshall Ernst, NWSS livestock operations senior director. “With a record-setting attendance and a bred-female selling for a record $250,000 this year’s event will be one that is long remembered by Hereford enthusiasts as well as others in the beef industry.”

An estimated 5,000 were in attendance for the sale’s first time to be managed by the American Hereford Association (AHA).

“It’s been an exciting time for the Hereford breed,” says Joe Rickabaugh, AHA director of seedstock marketing. “In addition to breaking a record with the high-selling lot, we saw 30 lots out of 40 lots bring $10,000 or more. The last lot in the sale brought $18,000, and there were eight lots over $30,000.”

Sale attendees came to see a show and that’s just what they got. The Hereford offering, as always, was elite, and the bidding proved it. When auctioneers Eddie Burks and Rick Machado, silenced the gavel for the final time, $1,382,350 had been spent. The 41 live lots grossed $1,247,250 with an average of $30,421. The five embryo lots more than doubled last year’s average at $8,270. One flush commanded $15,500 and one semen lot brought $78,250.

Topping the sale at $250,000 was Lot 7, NJW PMH 66X 156T Luxe 202A ET, consigned by NJW Polled Herefords, Sheridan, Wyo., and Pablo Herrera, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is a Sept. 9, 2013, daughter of CMR GVP MR Maternal 156T and out of NJW 78P 4037 Luxury 66X ET. Progen Trading LLC, Boca Raton, Fla., took home this phenomenal bred female.