Hicks Beef wins the Beef Spectacular Feedback Trial

The operation is run by the Hicks family, Holbrook, who entered two teams of composite steers, one of which scored 781.5 points out of 1000 to take out the competition's top spot, five points ahead of Will and Melinda McCrohon, Holbrook, in reserve.

The same team was awarded champion for feedlot performance with a score of 300 out of 350 points.

In the feedlot performance, two of the Hicks' steers received the full 70 points and across the five steers in the group, there was an average daily gain of 2.28kg a day.

In the carcase section, the team scored a total of 386 points out of 550. Their second team also performed well, coming away with fifth overall on 743 points.

Read more: Beef Spectacular Feedback Trial 2023: Results summary

Read more: Full steam ahead to 2024 Trial

Hicks Beef is no stranger to the podium having been involved in the trial since the beginning and has been grand champion three times and has taken out various other awards along the way.

Tom Hicks said the trial had been a great validation their program was headed in the right direction, their focus on data also pushing them to be consistent performers.

The Hicks produce about 1500 calves a year with 1200 of those seedstock animals, including 1000 composites and the rest Red Angus. About 420 bulls are sold annually.

"It is a disciplined approach and it's balancing up data with a bit of cow sense," he said.

"It's not all 100pc data. We do look at the animal and they have to be phenotyped right."

When multibreed expected progeny differences (EPDs) came in, things really took off for the herd and now using the data is a key part of their business.

"It took a while for those genetics to get through the whole herd, but once they got in there we really knew where we were going because we had such a good database to back it, that's when it kicked in," he said.

"We're such big believers in the multibreed database. EPDs has been the biggest quantum leaps in cattle genetics.

"It means more accurate decision making which leads into more genetic improvement quicker, which is the whole aim of the game."

He said, ultimately, to be successful, there must be clear breeding objectives.

"You've got to have a clear outline of where you're going and what you stand for," he said. "We're very focused on profitability and then we work back to what drives the profitability - that's production per hectare and that's driven by the maternal production.

"Then you work your way down through the growth and carcase traits as you go."

He said they had a maternally-focused system.

"We're really trying to improve the calving ease and the longevity in the females," he said.

Tom's father Andrew Hicks, said economic traits have always been at the forefront of their decision making.

"You want more live calves, easy birthweights, you want cows that stay in your herd and you want carcases that sell well at the other end," he said.

"It's what we've focused on for 20 years."

The family has been breeding cattle for years, but it was Andrew and his wife, Anne, that introduced the concept of composite cattle from US about 25 years ago.

"It's still radical thinking - most people think you barrack for a breed," Andrew said.

"You can get the marbling from one breed and the muscle from another and combine them together and select for optimum traits.

"We've got muscly cattle that marble and we've done that by bringing in the marbling from the Angus and the muscle from the Simmental."

Tom said you can have the best of both worlds with complementary traits and pair that with hybrid vigour.

"It's the lesser talked about part of hybrid vigour is the breed complementarity, but it's such an important part of it and you can see it from the results here," he said.

"Some animals perform very well with marbling then their yields are not good, but with what we're doing you're optimising both. It's probably something that's underutilised in the beef industry."

Longer term, Tom said they will continue to focus on their carcase development.

"We'll keep our objectives very clear to us to keep breeding easy care cattle that survive and thrive under harsh conditions with a focus on dollars per hectare."