TWO teams from last year's winners of the NSW Beef Spectacular Feedback Trial have shown the evenness of the Tait Pastoral Company program, receiving equal third place overall on 806.5.
A note-worthy performance by the 2019 victors the Tait family, Sunny Downs, Mandurama, their two Angus teams not only ranked equal third but also received equal Riverine Premium Beef Champion pens.
They also exhibited the carcase champion team on 436.5 points, received the second and third highest team average MSA Index rankings at 56.012 and 55.793, and were awarded gold medals for both their teams for eating quality.
The overall highest scoring steer from the Taits scored 174 points from a possible 200, with a carcase score of 94/100. It had a carcase weight of 399kg, dressing percentage of 56.8pc, EMA of 104 cm sq, lean meat yield of 57.4pc, MSA Index of 56.17 and a marble score of 2.
Slightly changing their selection for 2020, Stuart Tait said they entered one team of steers from an artificial insemination (AI) program, and a second team of steers that were from natural matings - "the best of the rest".
"We wanted to use the trial to compare steers from our AI program to our normal program to see if we were on the right track," Mr Tait said.
The AI calves in the trial were all by American sire Deer Valley Patriot 3222 and out of heifers, whereas the naturally conceived steers had Dunoon bloodlines that the Taits had been using for 10 years.
"Two hundred and fifty steers came from the yards, and first and foremost we had weight parameters - anything out of the weight window was not eligible," he said.
"Say we had 50 in the weight bracket, out of the 20 might have been AI calves and the 30 remaining natural calves that we then picked the teams of five from with the help of Brett Littler (LLS) and my dad, John."
The Taits fatten a lot of steers which allows them to adjust their stocking rate according to the season, rather than having to cut into their cow numbers.
"So we have wound up or wound down our steers numbers accordingly, and haven't had to cut our cow numbers," Mr Tait said.
Mr Taits said they set breeding parameters and are somewhat guided by the trial's feedback.
"Because we won last year, it says that the breeding objectives we are using are on the right track. We can keep improving but we are heading in the right direction," he said.
"That is why we entered in first place - to see if we are performing where it counts, and again we are using it to see if we are making the right choice moving towards an AI program compared to what we were previously doing."