GETTING as much data as possible is important for Gilmandyke Pastoral, Orange, where new sire lines were being tested.
Gilmandyke entered two teams of Angus, which general manager Wade Peatman said were from two sires.
"We were able to trace how they did in real world conditions," he said.
Mr Peatman said the Gilmandyke team was pleased with its entries' performance.
One team was ninth overall with a score 728 points out of 1000.
"We were pretty pleased with weight gain and caracase data and in order to come in ninth we've been up there with the top teams," he said.
Gilmandyke runs a stud Angus herd of about 500 cows and sells 90 to 100 bulls a year.
Along with the stud the company also has a commercial Angus herd of about 2500 head producing cattle for the feeder market.
Mr Peatman said it was also a cow-calf operation, so fertility was key.
"Then from there, weight gain is paramount because the more kilos of beef we can get off the place the better we are and we're just starting to really focus in on some of carcase qualities," he said.
"Marbling is one everyone is talking about so we're looking pretty heavily at it."
Mr Peatman said marbling would be increasingly important.
"We've introduced a couple of new sires trying to target that as well as maintain what we have got," he said.
"It will be interesting to see how that filters through the herd in the coming years."
After many years without entering, Mr Peatman said the operation would now make the trial an annual event.
"It's a really good way of getting some accurate and interesting data along sire lines for us," he said.
The other Gilmandyke team scored 670.5 points and finished 35th.
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.
