FINAL rounds of judging have now taken place for the Beef 2024 National Carcase competition – results from which will be revealed during the Rockhampton event in May.

The last carcases were assessed at NH Foods’ Borthwicks Mackay abattoir on Monday, having been processed on the final entry day of 29 February.

A total of 813 carcases have now been assessed for carcase attributes, meat quality and yield for the 2024 competition, representing beef herds in all mainland states plus Tasmania.

Entries are slightly up on the previous event held in 2021, but not quite at the record achieved in 2018, when just over 1000 carcases were assessed for the competition.

Numerical the strongest entries have been received this year for the grainfed export chiller bullocks class, for carcases 300-420kg (82 entries, each of three head), and grassfed chiller bullocks (41 entries).

Other classes to attract solid support included light and heavy domestic trade steers and heifers – both grass and grainfed.

A new unrestricted feeding class added this year for longfed Wagyu is off to a strong start, attracting 27 groups of three steers or heifers.

No less than 18 large export processors across Australia have provided opportunity for suppliers to enter this year. They included:

NSW:

• Northern Cooperative Meat Co, Casino
• JBS Scone
• Teys Wagga
• NH Foods Wingham

Queensland:

• Teys Biloela
• Nolan Meats, Gympie
• Kilcoy Global Foods, Kilcoy
• NH Foods, Borthwicks Mackay
• NH Foods, Oakey Beef
• JBS Beef City Toowoomba
• John Dee, Warwick

Tasmania:

• JBS Longford
• Greenham Smithton

Victoria:

• JBS Brooklyn
• Greenham Gippsland
• Western Australia
• V & V Walsh
• Harvey Beef

South Australia:

• Teys Naracoorte.

First kills under the competition’s rules took place in June last year, and extended through to the end of last month to cater for local seasonal cycles in different parts of Australia.

The Beef Australia National Carcase competition provides rare opportunity for beef supply chains from across the nation to compare performance, both in terms of feeding and breeding, using a common platform.

Competition master judge Janine Lau, research & development and integrity manager with Meat Standards Australia, said while the final judging process was jet to start, this year’s entries were looking extremely competitive, in all categories.

The return to better seasonal conditions across parts of Eastern Australia was clearly evident in grassfed entries.

The AMPC National Beef Carcase Competition, supported by MLA Meat Standards Australia aims to give feedback to producers about compliance of beef carcases to market specifications, lean meat yield, and predicted eating quality of those carcases, based on MSA index.

The assessment system, developed from the Australian Beef Carcase Appraisal System, is designed to meet both export and domestic market requirements and uses latest objective carcase measurement technology available to the beef industry (see references below).

David Hill

Entries were judged using a modified ABCAS carcase grading formula based on market specifications (weight, dentition, fatness, meat and fat colour – 10 points), lean meat yield (30 points), and predicted eating quality (MSA index – 40 points).

“With participation from processors and beef producers in every state, this is truly a national event,” carcase committee chairman David Hill said.

In recognition of the hard work each participating plant contributes to the success of the competition, a new award category has been introduced. The ‘Most Successful Plant’ award will be presented to the processing plant that achieves the highest score based on pen scores, number of entries and competition results.

Camera-based grading

The Beef 2024 National Carcase Competition again used camera-based grading to judge all entries.

Beef Australia three years ago purchased smartphone-based MasterBeef grading cameras for use in the competition. Click here to view an earlier Beef Central story on the SmartBeef grading technology, developed by Central Queensland Wagyu cattleman and engineer, Darren Hamblin.

The portable, lightweight and easy-to-use chiller assessment grading cameras were used to capture images of all entries, in conjunction with the plant MSA graders at each processing facility.

One of the cameras was despatched to each processing site for use during the judging period, with individual carcase data and digital images captured and stored on the MasterBeef system database.

Carcase competition master judge Janine Lau will now review the digital data and images collected at each site, as well as slaughter-floor data, to ensure consistency in grading across all sites.

One of the big advantages in the use of the camera is that judging times are now far more flexible at each plant, without the need for a master judge to physically travel to each of the 25 participating plants multiple times throughout the nine-month judging period.

Mr Hill said the MasterBeef cameras had proven to be a great advance in judging since their introduction back in 2021.

• Winners for the 2024 competition will be announced at a Beef 2024 dedicated carcase awards dinner in Rockhampton on the night of Tuesday 7 May. Click here for details