Beef Australia 2018 Carcase Competition winners announced
09 May 2018
Beef producers from Western Australia have taken out the top awards in the Beef Australia 2018 ANZ National Beef Carcase Competition, presented last night in Rockhampton.
Judged by Meat Standards Australia (MSA) Research & Development and Integrity Manager, Janine Lau, the competition aims to provide feedback to producers about their cattle’s compliance to market specifications, lean meat yield, and eating quality as represented by the MSA Index.
From a record-breaking pool of more than 1077 head graded at 21 processing plants from every state, AS & M Campbell claimed both the ANZ Achievement Award Overall Champion Carcase and Reserve Champion Carcase.
TW Pearson & Son won the MSA Index Award for the individual carcase with the highest total MSA Index with an MSA Index of 68.32 and the MSA Index Award for a group of three carcases with the highest total MSA Index with a combined MSA Index of 201.82.
AS & M Campbell also took out the Beef Australia Highest Pen Award for the highest scoring pen of three and the Reserve Champion Pen Award.
Ms Lau, who first judged the 2015 competition was impressed by the quality of this year’s entries.
“40% of carcases recorded an MSA Index above 60.61, placing them in the top 25% of MSA graded cattle,” she said.
Competition Committee Chairman David Hill said a new innovative approach to scoring was implemented this year with a lean meat yield (LMY) algorithm currently used by industry adopted as a more accurate way of measuring the yield component of the competition.
Once again the MSA Index was worth 40%, 40% for lean meat yield (LMY) and 20% for market specifications aligning to each class.
“The competition is not just about the ribbon anymore, it’s about the opportunity for education and benchmarking performance against the best in the country for eating quality and yield,” Mr Hill said.
“With the feedback each entrant receives we ultimately hope to see practice change at the producer level.”
With an investment of about 100 working days Ms Lau assessed entries across a 10-month window catering to regional season cycles.
