The owner of a bull that suffered a drop-off in its breeding ability after being sold has lost a claim dispute. 

Before it was bought, the bull was examined by a fertility expert and found to be “sound in all aspects and suitable for insurance and breeding purposes”, with a live sperm rate of 80%.

The owner took out a stud stock policy with Lloyd’s Australia when it bought the bull at auction in 2023.

A May 2024 claim for loss of value stated the bull had become impotent due to an injury.

The owner said that soon after purchase, the bull appeared to be lame in its left hind leg and testing showed its fertility was below the standard required to breed.

The injury improved after treatment, but in February 2024 the bull was again lame in the same leg.

“This has effectively remained unresolved and, since then, the bull has been incapable of natural service,” the Australian Financial Complaints Authority said in a ruling on the claim dispute.

Related article: A ‘microsleep’, a miner crash and the major failure that wrecked driver’s claim

The claimant said that after auction, the bull probably suffered from relocation-induced depressed fertility. This was temporary and would have resolved but for the injury that followed.

But Lloyd’s said the bull was impotent before the injury, and a causal link was not established. It declined the claim and offered to refund premiums.

An AFCA panel ruled this was “fair in all the circumstances”.

“Even if the injury had not occurred, the panel is not persuaded the exchanged information shows the bull would have been capable of natural service,” the authority said.

The pre-sale testing was done by a non-veterinarian, and a Lloyd’s vet said “nuclear vacuoles” abnormalities in the results were not spotted.

These abnormalities usually arise in the earlier stages of sperm production but do not emerge in significant numbers until weeks later.

In the bull’s tests, they were high at 57% just five days after sale.

“This is difficult to reconcile if they were presumably at baseline at the time of sale or when tested prior to the sale,” AFCA said.

AFCA says the Lloyd’s vet report contradicts the relocation-induced depressed fertility hypothesis and suggests an underlying and ongoing issue was affecting the bull’s ability to procreate.

The report makes “compelling points about the [nuclear vacuoles] levels which have not been considered or rebutted by the complainant’s experts”.

AFCA is “not persuaded the exchanged information shows the bull’s impotence was a direct result of the injury”, as required under the policy.

“The bull was impotent prior to the injury. There is insufficient information to show that the matters affecting the bull prior to the injury would have resolved themselves.”

See the ruling here.