Achieving eighth place at the Beef Spectacular Feedback Trial was the result of a focus on high-performing, carcase cattle at Willis Bros Farming, Tralee, Yerong Creek.
Annual entrants of many years now, Al and Greg Willis and their father Trevor of Willis Bros Farming entered one team of purebred Shorthorn steers and scored 668.5, their best result to date.
The Willis' initially entered the trial to collect data on how well their animals would perform in a feedlot situation.
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"We wanted to know if we were on the right track, particularly from a carcase perspective, "Al said.
Running around 90 breeders, they are a self-replacing operation based on Yamburgan bloodlines that generally sells through Wagga saleyards or direct to feedlots depending on the market.
The Willis' track the lineage of all the cows and calves born on their property, therefore when it comes to analysing the feedback from the trial they can pin-point what sire/s and dam/s are producing the ideal article.
They only had eight steers to choose from this year, selecting them on weight and bloodline.
The Willis' said this was the best they had ever done in the feedlot performance section, achieving 17th overall with an average daily weight gain of 1.8 kilograms per head per day.
"Our cattle naturally grow well... they have the genetic potential to gain well and feedlot performance (weight gain) is something we have worked on," they said.
Consistently performing well in the carcase section of the competition, including ninth in the 2019 trial, they finished sixth overall for team carcase performance on 380.5 points.
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On average the steers had a carcase weight of 355.2kg, a dressing percentage of 55.3 per cent, lean meat yield of 55.04pc and an MSA Index of 62.452. One steer attracted 90 carcase points from the possible 110.
The mixed farming operation has a split calving and run 1600 Merino ewes and 100 crossbred ewes alongside the cattle, and crop.
Selecting a moderate, not too big, easy doing type, they are currently rebuilding numbers following the drought after they dropped down to 40 breeders.
"After the break we've kept around 30 heifers to replenish numbers," he said.
Previously trialling the use of other breeds, including Charolais and Red Angus, the Willis family returned to breeding purebred Shorthorns.
"We have two main sire lines and we cross them over one another," they said.
The Willis' have also done well in steer carcase competitions through the donation of steers to local schools.
