Beef Spectacular Feedback Trial 2024: Strong performance across the board

Trial analyst Jeff House, Jeff House Livestock, Forbes, said in 2024 trial there was a total of 455 head from 91 teams.

Mr House said in terms of feedlot entry 87 per cent of steers fell into the specifications for induction weight and 98 per cent for P8 fat (three to 10mm).

"It was a good result in terms of them hitting the specs going in," he said.

Mr House said looking trends over the past 10 years the cattle were a little heavier going in.

"There was a little tighter range which was good to see," he said.

For entrants, this year was no different in terms of ensuring the steers were properly documented and Mr House said some team lost points for not having it correct.

"This year unfortunately three teams were penalised for not correctly filling out their national vendor declarations and again I tend to harp on this every year but the NVD and the health document are two really important bits of information that go with your cattle to the feedlot and they need to be filled in correctly," he said.

Mr House said there was 20 animals penalised for their PIC numbers not matching their paperwork.

"Technically they've lost their lifetime traceability in the NLIS database so we need to make sure we get that right," he said.

"Unfortunately there was one team penalised for both of those and it had an extremely detrimental effect on their overall performance."

Mr House said one team was also late with their Bovilis vaccination, however, he said one thing was a real clanger this year.

"There were a number of teams disqualified from the competition because they had actually been treated with a long acting drench and the long acting drench had a longer withholding period than the length of time the cattle were in the feedlot," he said.

Mr House said the withold was 140 days, longer than the time in the feedlot, and he urged producers to be really careful when using long acting drenches and making sure their use was properly documented.

"If those cattle had got through and into the trial process there's a real risk there was going to be residues in that beef and that again can have a really detrimental effect on the entire beef industry in Australia," he said.

"We might sound a bit melodramatic but that's the sort of impact it can have and there's a number of those products."

In the feedlot Mr House said the cattle averaged 1.95 kilograms a head per day.

"It was a really good result," he said.

Only a small number of animals did less than 0.8kg/hd/day, while some put on as much as 2.6kg/hd/day.

"That's the highest we've had since taking the HGP (hormonal growth promotants) out of these cattle," he said.

Mr House said the results were not far behind 2018, when HGPs were still used.

"It's the genetics of the cattle and the management in the feedlot that are contributing to that," he said.

"A really good performance."

When it came to the carcases Mr House said 74pc fell into the broad specifications, while 26pc were really ideal with maximum points for weight and fat.

"A number of cattle stayed quite lean this year which was surprising given the season," he said.

"There were a few that stayed down that bottom end even though we had that higher weight gain."

Mr House said carcase weight was heavier this year. The benchmarks for the optimum range for carcase weight was dropped when HGPs were taken out of the trial.

"This is the first time in the whole trial that our average has actually sat in that optimum box which is a really good result in terms of our carcase weights," he said.

Mr House said lean meat yield was back a little form last year, sitting at an average of 54.8pc and ranging from 46pc to 61pc.

The MSA index was a really good result," he said.

Mr House said the average was up from last year at 62.2, with the bulk sitting in the 64 and 64 range, and only one carcase that did not grade.

"A couple really up in that 67 and 68 and that's a phenomenal MSA index," he said.

"So really good eating quality as well as that good lean meat yield."

The majority of the cattle had marble scores 1 and 2, with the average 1.5. One carcase had a marble score 5 and two marble score 6.

"For the first time ever this year we had one which was a marble score 8," he said.

"So a lot of marbling in some of these cattle."

When it came to brands to qualify for the Riverine Premium Beef product a minimum of marble score 2 was required and 39pc of cattle made the brand, slightly lower than last year.

A total of 24pc were branded under the Teys Certified Black Angus and 37pc in the Riverine Classic brand.

"Really pleasing to see - only one animal dropped out of those branded product lines so again really good result," he said.

Once again Mr House said the profit variation between the teams, while lower than the last couple of years, was mind blowing.

There was a difference of $3775 between the top and bottom teams, which equated to $755 a head.

Keeping to commercial orientation any dead animals were still included, which Mr House said did bring that number down, however, even without those there was still a significant variation.

"It is still one of the real challenges for the industry," he said.

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