Rutherglen’s top on the hook honours

The Alpine Angus-bred exhibit won the export division and the grand champion carcase award with 89.31 points out of 100.

This included full points for saleable meat yield, measuring 10 millimetres of fat and an eye muscle area of 91 square centimetres.

It had a Meat Standards Australia (MSA) Index of 56.81, weighing 580 kilograms live and dressing at 56 per cent, with a carcase weight of 323kg.

Rutherglen also placed fourth and fifth in the export division on the hook, with a Welsh Black and a Red Angus steer respectively, which placed them third in the most successful schools competition.

Beckenham and Rigdale Limousins exhibited the champion heavy domestic carcase with a Limousin steer – the stablemate to the steer they won grand champion exhibit on the hoof with.

The same team placed second in the heavy domestic carcass judging with yet another Limousin steer, this time the reserve champion heavy domestic exhibit on the hoof.

Their champion heavy domestic carcase was awarded 86.72 points out of 100, with an MSA Index of 58.46 and dressing at 60 per cent, with a carcass weight of 255kg.

The reserve champion heavy domestic on both the hook and hoof was also part of the Limousin’s winning Borthwick Trophy team, along with Beckenham and Rigdale’s grand champion steer on the hoof, and a third Limousin from Yanco Agricultural High School, NSW.

Yanco was also named the most successful school or college exhibitor.

The Limousin breed stopped the Shorthorns from making it three in a row, having won the prestigious trophy for best team of three purebred steers for the past two years running.

Limousins are no stranger to the Borthwick though, now having won it five times in the past 11 years.

In second place for the Borthwick was a team of Charolais, all bred by Talgoona Charolais and sired by the same bull – Rosedale Goolie – while Shorthorns placed third.

Emmanuel College, Warrnambool, won champion domestic carcase with a Belted Galloway bred by award 85.75 points, with a Speckle Park-Limousin cross Angus steer from Black Diamond Speckle Parks running a very close second on 85.26.

Another Belted Galloway, bred and exhibited by Pine Gully Park, placed third in that division.

Beef cattle committee member Sam Nelson said the grand champion carcase “stood out like a beacon, it really was a tremendous carcase”.

Australian Meat Group was particularly pleased with the export weight carcases, which they processed, Mr Nelson said, while a wholesaler purchased a majority of the domestic and heavy domestic carcases from Radfords where they were processed, proving the had made the grade.

“All carcase results were based on objective measurements and at the end of the day in the heavy domestic, the ones that did well in led competition did very well in the carcase competition,” he said.

Mr Nelson said not penalising the domestic and heavy domestic carcases for being high yielding for the first time this year was a real positive.

“It is a live weight class, with an ideal carcase weight bracket worked out on previous years yield, and we thought it was unjust to penalise people with a high yielding carcase, because at the end of the day we are trying pack as much meat into the animal as possible,” he said.

And when it comes to next year’s competition, Mr Nelson recommends competitors focus on EMA and cattle transition to show and processor.

“I think we can address the transition a lot better, have them prepared better with electrolytes and water as that can contribute to dark cutters,” he said.

“And looking at the specs, the EMA contributes to a lot of points, and people need to concentrate on that area a bit, and when they are getting these steers assess them for that - it is a large contributor to the points.”