Western Australia’s best MSA producers awarded

Beef producers from Western Australia’s South West region and central grainbelt have taken out the top awards at the 2017 Meat Standards Australia (MSA) Excellence in Eating Quality Awards for the State, presented at Dunsborough last night.

The Awards recognise producers who have achieved outstanding compliance rates to MSA specifications, as well as high eating quality, as represented by MSA Index results for beef carcases graded during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years. 

South West region beef producers Shane and Leanne Ablett, Cowaramup, were awarded the Most Outstanding Beef Producer award. This award was open to any production system, with the exclusion of accredited grainfed beef. (Click here for more details about the Ablett family’s operations)

Carpenter Beef, Dandaragan, owned by Rami Koyu’s Central Agri Group, was awarded Most Outstanding Beef Producer – Grainfed. Cattle from feedlots accredited under the National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme (NFAS) and that met the Australian Grainfed Standards were included in this category. (Click here for more details about Carpenter Beef)

Beef producers Russell and Sonya Mead, Mills Farm Grazing, Coolup, won the inaugural MSA Excellence in Eating Quality Progress Award for WA for showing the greatest improvement in their MSA results since the 2014-15 financial year.

MSA Program Manager Sarah Strachan said the producers were to be congratulated for their commitment to produce beef that consistently achieves exceptional compliance rates to MSA’s strict specifications.

“To help with continuously improving eating quality, MSA-registered producers are provided with ongoing feedback on their livestock, accessible through myMSA, which now offers producers the ability to benchmark their performance against other producers in the state as well,” Ms Strachan said.

“These producers are showing they are taking notice of that information to achieve results.

“Shane and Leanne Ablett won their award from a field comprising of 1,679 registered producers in Western Australia who consigned cattle during 2015-17.

“During 2015-17, 29% of all cattle consigned to MSA from Western Australia were grainfed. Carpenter Beef won the grainfed award from a field of 80 registered producers in the State who consigned grainfed cattle during 2015-17.

“More than 14,000 producers throughout Australia consigned almost 5.9 million cattle to the MSA program throughout 2015-17.”

To be eligible for the awards, a producer’s annual MSA-graded volume had to be equal to or above the average volume consigned for the state in which they were produced.

Each producer that met the eligibility criteria received a score out of 100 weighted on two factors - the compliance to MSA minimum requirements, and eating quality performance as determined by the MSA Index for cattle consigned to MSA in 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years.   

The Awards aim to raise awareness of best management practice from producers who consistently deliver superior eating quality beef in their state ultimately for the benefit of consumers and for the profitability of the industry.

The WA awards are the fourth of the MSA Excellence in Eating Quality Awards to be held throughout Australia and are being staged in conjunction with the ‘What Makes the Perfect MSA Index’ producer forums in each state.

MSA was developed by the Australian red meat industry to improve beef eating quality consistency. The system is based on over 700,000 consumer taste tests by over 100,000 consumers from nine countries and takes into account all factors that affect the eating quality from the paddock to the plate.

To find out more information about the MSA Program visit: https://www.mla.com.au/msa

MSA producers can access their carcase feedback at www.mymsa.com.au