Beef's reigning interbreed champions ready to bring the competition

Ivan and Helen Price and their family made it back-to-back supreme female wins in 2021, when Moongool Radical 26 was elevated to the top title. It followed their 2018 interbreed female win with Moongool Typhena 9.

Now preparations are in full swing for the 2024 event.

Mr Price said they would showcase 30 head on their trade display and around eight in the stud cattle competition.

"For the stud cattle section, we'll be bringing four senior bulls to Beef. They're a good cross section of our genetics and are all by proven sires," he said.

"We've also got a nice cow and calf unit. The female is an older cow and she's about five-year-old."

The Charolais breed has won the interbreed female battle eight times from 12 Beef events. The last female winner that wasn't a Charolais was in 2015 when the Red Angus, Bolton Girls Whisper Echo, was sashed champion.

"Beef Australia is always a great competition and I think this year's stud cattle section has been well supported by looking at the increase in exhibits."

While their main focus is breeding Charolais, the Price family also breeds Simbrah and Brahman cattle.

"Our display at Beef will showcase those three breeds," Mr Price said.

Among their top bull prospects is Moongool Trademark, who claimed junior champion bull in the Charolais ring at the 2023 Royal Queensland Show.

"Trademark is coming along quite well and he'll be exhibited as a two-year-old at Beef this year," Mr Price said.

The Prices have shown cattle at every Beef event since 1991 and Mr Price said it was a great way to showcase their genetics to a wider audience.

"It's a great event and you can showcase your cattle in front of a big international audience," he said.

"All the top stud cattle producers in Australia gather there over a week, so it's always a really good event to promote your breeder cattle and also promote your own business. At the end of the day, it's all about exposure and showing people what you're producing within your own herd and hopefully trying to improve beef cattle in Australia, that's what it's all about."

The Job family of Royalla Shorthorns will once again make the journey from Yeoval to Rockhampton, Qld, in May for Beef.

And this time they will be contesting their 2021 interbreed bull title.

Their prize-winning sire, Royalla Ventura P158, overcame a state of origin battle three years ago to beat the NCC Brahman entry in the final showdown.

Nic Job said they would have seven bulls and one cow and calf unit in May's stud cattle competition.

Plenty of them have links to Ventura too.

"Two of the bulls we'll be exhibiting are half brothers to Royalla Ventura P158, the cow is a half sister and her calf at foot is sired by him as well," Mr Job said.

"I've also got three sons of Ventura on the Shorthorn Beef site for sale."

The Job family have been exhibiting at Beef since 1994.

While winning the interbreed in 2021 was a highlight, Royalla Shorthorns had also placed second in the interbreed competition three times prior.

"We continue to support Beef to support our clients and to show new clients our Shorthorn genetics," Mr Job said.

"We've been selling bulls in western Queensland for 50 years, so it's about showing what we can do with bulls that can take it and handle it and go out and do the job.

"You don't go expecting to win but I go expecting to be competitive and having cattle that we're proud to exhibit."

The only other Shorthorn interbreed winner was a bull, The Grove Kasprowicz W791, in 2003.