Beef Spectacular Feedback Trial 2024: Genetic testing ramps up Big Springs operation

The Big Springs couple's team of five Angus steers scored 796.5 out of a possible 1000, finishing only five points behind trial winners The Sisters Pastoral Co, The Sisters, Victoria.

The team also took out the Riverine Premium Beef Champion Pen and was awarded first in the eating quality medals with an average MSA index of 65.66.

All five steers qualified for the Riverine Premium Beef brand with three carcases a marble score 2 and one a marble score 3. The remaining carcase had a marble score 6 and had the highest MSA index of the five with 67.03, scoring 96 out of 110 for carcase.

The Skinners are not shy to the trial having entered for the last eight years and their focus on carcase quality has shone, taking out several awards including seventh in the eating quality medals last year.

Mr Skinner said the data they get from the trial was one of the main reasons they continue to enter.

"It's a good tool to measure your direction and get a bit of a handle on how your steers are performing and where you can improve and what you can change," he said.

Running a herd of about 320 Angus breeders, Mr Skinner said their biggest focus was their females.

"Essentially we try and breed the best females we can and the steers, the offspring, roll on from that," he said.

Data plays a big role in their operation, with the trial results used in combination with other services.

Mr Skinner said they had been using HeiferSELECT for about four years now and this year also genetically tested their steers through Zoetis.

"We are using that to really fine tune our breeding and then we've done some tests on the steers as well as a bit of a trial to see how they showed up and was able to use that data," he said.

Mr Skinner said the steers picked for the trial were an average across the herd, with good figures across the board, rather than focusing in on specific traits.

And the results from the genetic testing of the steers matched the trial outcome.

"With the DNA information it's good to see that is accurate to what actually happens," Mrs Skinner said.

The Skinner's started out themselves breeding Angus cattle about 10 years ago and have always used Rennylea bulls, with Mr Skinner's family also having a long history with the stud.

"Our passion has always been with cattle and genetics," he said.

Mr Skinner said they had used AI from the start, but also had some bulls on the ground.

With their focus on females he said there were parameters to meet when selecting bulls and straws.

"We want growth, we want good calving ease, good four hundred day growth and six hundred day growth," he said.

"We put a big emphasis on our mature cow weight. We don't want massive thumping cows, we try and keep them in check and run more of them that way."

Mr Skinner said carcase traits were also important with eye muscle area and intramuscular fat at the top end, as long as all the other figures matched up as well.

Using AI allowed the Skinner's to try and have all their females calf in a six week period.

"The AI lets us keep that really tight calving group and we get AI calves on the ground nice and quick and early," he said.

"We try and keep that calving pattern really tight so when we're selling lines of steers they're nice and even."

He said using HeiferSELECT, along with a visual assessment, has also enabled them to make decisions on which females to use for their AI program and which get joined to a bull.

"We used to retain all the heifers and AI ones and pull out ones that were late or empties," he said.

"Now we have a good idea on how our heifers are going to perform at a young age."

"It's taking the guess work out of it," Mrs Skinner said.

Steers are generally grown out to an average of 400kg for the feedlot market, while excess females are mostly sold on AuctionsPlus.

With their market the carcase traits were also high when it came to breeding objectives.

The genetic testing will continue to play a large role in the Skinner's program.

"Moving forward we just want to really get our cows into a tight group genetic wise," Mr Skinner said.

"Get a really good even lines of cows that we know how they're going to perform."

Mr Skinner said HeiferSELECT was already ingrained into their program and after the results from the steers, they would also look at continuing to test those as well.

"It suits what we want to do," he said.

"The results you get from it speak for themselves essentially in terms of your calving and genetic gain and using that to make sure the cows are going the way we want them and from that breed the steers you want to breed."

The Skinner's second team, also five Angus steers, finished 36th overall.

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