First time entrants Mitch and Susie Crawford of Baringa at Walcha entered the feedlot trial as something to look forward to post-drought.
They thought it was time to start thinking about production, rather than survival, and were content to receive some benchmarking data.
But the EU self-replacing Angus operation walked away with much more when they were awarded the MSA eating quality medal with a team average score of 65.56.
Their lowest individual score was 62.09, while their highest was 69.55.
What made the win even more special was the fact it relates directly to the markets they target on a regular basis; turning off 12 to 16-month-old cattle at 450kg to feedlots and MSA grass-fed markets.
"The MSA grading we are quite interested in especially with no HGP for the trial this year; we would hope that our cattle would perform and those traits the Angus breed is known for," Mitch said.
"We would hope our young cattle would average well over 60 but first it's just meeting the requirements of that program.
"Most of our cattle go into a longer fed program, so it was interesting to see how they perform on a shorter feed situation."
Their team had an average induction weight of 438kg and during the 70 days on feed averaged 1.74kg/day.
On the hook they dressed at 53.38 per cent on average and had eye muscle areas from 75 to 94, P8 fats from 11 to 20mm and rib fat depths of 10 to 19mm.
The Crawfords use their own Baringa Angus bloodlines, born out of Glenavon females, in their breeder herd and also run trade cattle and weaners.
Two teams were selected for the competition from their mob of weaners and were around yearling age when they entered.
The calves were born in drought conditions back in August 2019 and weaned averaging 130kg in January, half the normal weight.
It wasn't until a few weeks after that rain finally came, just before they would have been forced to destock further and only hold onto their weaners. In 2020 they received 1080mm, more ran than the previous two years combined.
Things turned around in a big way and where normally they would run 1.3 weaners per acre on crop, they were instead up to 1.7 weaners/acre through winter on rye grass.
They were able to get their heifers to well above joining weight and are now fully stocked with females and 80pc of their trade/weaner cattle.
"We wean onto and grow out onto an annual crop through winter and if they need to be finished they are on improved perennial pastures through spring, summer and autumn," Mitch said.
"That's the main way we get them up to speed. We are normally turning steers off at 12 months of age and hopefully they all go by 16 but of course season plays a big part.
"This year we are actually growing some out to the heavy kill weight because of the extra grass and price of weaners.
"We were surprised with the quality of feed that has come back since the drought. We were expecting to see some pretty tired grasses but the quality of the perennial grasses and the clovers has been excellent."