THE variation in profitability never fails to astound trial analyst Jeff House, Jeff House Livestock, Forbes.
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A total of 445 cattle from 89 teams entered the trial with about $5200 difference in profitability between the top and the bottom team, which equates to about $1000 a head.
Deaths were included in the profitability with six recorded throughout the trial, however, if these were not counted, Mr House said there was still about a $3500 to $4000 variation.
"Often your long term profitability is sitting at less than $100 a head, at times less than $50 a head, so $1000/head difference for profitability is just mindblowing," he said.
Mr House said the difference came down to their growth in the feedlot and lean meat yield.
"It comes down to how well they perform in the feedlot, their weight gain in the feedlot, what sort of carcase weight they end up with at the end of the day and do they meet the specs," he said.
"What we'd love to do in the industry is reduce this variation."
Overall, Mr House said the results of the trial were very similar to last year.
In the feedlot entry phase there were 11 teams penalised for not completing their national vendor declaration correctly, which he said was a very important document.
Mr House said the trial has returned to scanning animals with 87 per cent of cattle in the trial reaching the mark for weight and fat.
"The average induction weight was down a little bit compared to the last two, but was a little bit tighter in the spread," he said.
"It was good to see no really light cattle in this year."
Mr House said organisers were encouraged slightly heavier cattle into the competition this year.
"It is a real balancing act between getting cattle to come in at the right weight and not be too heavy and too forward and struggle to continue to gain weight for the full feeding period," he said.
"It is a balancing act, but I think we achieved it reasonably well this year."
Moving into feedlot performance the average daily weight gain was 1.69 kilograms per head per day.
Mr House said the average was exactly the same as last year and the spread was also very similar.
"It was a really good performance for a group of cattle," he said.
"There has been a really consistent performance for the last three years."
Mr House said the carcase performance is the aim of the whole trial.
About 84pc of teams fell into the broad carcase specifications 300kg to 420kg hot standard carcase weight (HSCW) with 10mm to 32mm P8 fat.
The specifications were adjusted this year for the optimum carcase, which meant about 33pc of cattle fell into the range of 330kg to 380kg HSCW with 12 to 20 millimetres of P8 fat.
"If we look at where the carcase weight sat, the average carcase weight wasn't much below last year," he said.
"Overall a good result. It was a little bit tighter - we didn't get the extremes this year."
Mr House said the average lean meat yield was 57.5pc.
"The take home message every year is it's amazing how much variation there is," he said.
"We've got cattle from 51pc lean meat yield up to 63pc, a 12pc variation.
"That's a lot of extra meat potentially going into a box from those top-end cattle, assuming they've got sufficient fat cover."
Mr House said in terms of the MSA index, there was a great result this year with no ungraded meat and an average score of 62.8.
Marbling-wise, they targeted the Riverina Premium brand, which was a minimum of 2 marble score.
"We had no zero marbles which is really good," he said.
"We're getting a good percentage of cattle that are falling in there and threes and fours."
The end product has three brands it could potentially go into if it meets the specifications, including Riverine Premium Beef, Teys Certified Black Angus and Riverine Classic.
Mr House said 56pc made the top Riverine Premium brand, down from 59pc last year, while 12pc fit into Black Angus and 32pc made the Riverine Classic brand.
"No carcases didn't get a brand," he said.
"A really high percentage of those cattle made it into the brand we're targeting."
Alexandra Bernard
Journalist based in Wagga Wagga covering all things agriculture in southern NSW.
Journalist based in Wagga Wagga covering all things agriculture in southern NSW.
