The owner of the supreme exhibit winner in Santa Gertrudis competition at the 2022 Melbourne Royal Show has credited the breed for its functionality.
Burramurra Santa Gertrudis stud took out the top sash with their grand champion bull Nangaringa Shaun.
They also took out grand champion female with a heifer from his stud Burramurra 452.
The breed is more common in the arid and drier regions of Queensland, but Burramurra stud principal Mark Bazeley said there were many good traits about both entrants for southern states.
While the heifer had great qualities, there were a few important traits which got the bull over the line for the top sash.
"[The supreme exhibit] is a bought-in bull because he's got traits about him that I liked and is very true from a breed-type point of view and that one of the main reasons why I picked him," he said.
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"His length is fine, he is fairly tall and I think the thing that got him over our heifer was he's got a 122 millimetre measurement of eye muscle, which effectively is the same sort of eye muscle like what a lot of the Euro breeds have got," he said.
Mr Bazeley said the breed has a good bit of suitability for his property and "made a lot of sense" for his farming operation.
He also runs a wool brokering business and the fact that cattle on the farm can look after themselves is beneficial.
"There is an ease of calving, a good amount of a growth rates and where we are at is sort of fairly hot and dry, and those are the reasons why I needed something that can look after itself," he said.
"They're a very community minded type cattle, where they have the calves and you'll have an aunty that will look after all the calves while everyone else is out feeding and then they all take it in turns to look over the little cattle too."
Mr Bazeley also said there were a lot more Santa Gertrudis operations throughout northern Victoria and southern New South Wales than what most people would think.
"We sell bulls down into Gippsland, to areas just outside of Geelong and some of them also head to Ballarat," he said.
Judge Chris Taylor, JHW Paterson & Son, Bulart said the top two competing in the supreme exhibit were both well structured and wonderful examples of the breed.
"There's a few basic things that won't matter if they're in the northern or central Victoria, but the bull has very well hooded eyes, so it will be in the dust with flies and sunshine, which I think is an important trait for survivability in that environment," he said.
