Booroomooka’s Hugh and Juliet Munro, Glenroy, Bingera, receive congratulations from Teys Grant Garey and Shane Bullock

CATTLE with the all-round ability to perform well in the feedlot as well as in the chillers came out on top in the Teys Angus Shoot-Out Grainfed performance competition held as part of last week’s World Angus Forum.

While there were some exceptional performances in both the hoof and hook parts of the competition, those cattle that were superior for both weightgain as well as carcase quality traits floated to the top in the overall rankings.

The competition attracted 64 teams of five steers, totalling 320 head, from commercial and stud Angus breeders from across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.

They underwent a 117-day grainfed program at Teys Jindalee feedlot, before slaughter at Teys Wagga plant. Points were awarded on the basis of weight and dentition, average daily gain, health performance, carcase weight, lean meat yield, AusMeat marbling score and eating quality calculated via the MSA index.

Winners were announced during the final stages of the Zoetis AngusEXPO at the Australia Equine and Livestock Centre in Tamworth.

It was a memorable night for the Munro family who produced both the overall competition champions and runners-up.

Overall champions were exhibited by Hugh and Juliet Munro, principals of Booroomooka Angus, which has been an Angus Australia member since 1928. The Munros run their own enterprise, Glenroy, near Bingara.

Son Sinclair Munro and family, co-principals at Booroomooka, were runners-up for the overall championship exhibiting as Keera Lands, the commercial arm of Booroomooka, at Keera near Bingara.

Hugh Munro’s champion group were consistent performers, placing second for carcase performance and sixth for feedlot performance, delivering a final score of 842/1000.

The five steers produced average daily gains from 1.93kg to 2.45kg/day, with only a single health treatment recorded. Entry weights (shrunk) ranged from 424-458kg. In the chillers, the steers excelled, averaging 2.4 for marbling, rib eye area of 92sq cm, and lean meat yields as high as 55.3.

MSA Eating Quality Index scores ranged from 55.5 to 60.5.

A second pen entered by Hugh Munro finished fourth in the overall standings.

Hugh Munro said that among all the accolades Booroomooka had earned over the years in the show-ring and in the chillers, he rated this result the business’s finest achievement.

Son, Sinclair’s results were not far off the pace, earning a total pen score just 6.5 points behind, to finished runner-up. The Keera Lands pen produced the competition’s highest feedlot weightgain of 2.26kg/day, including individuals up to 2.6kg/day. The pen placed nineteenth for carcase performance, producing marbling scores of mostly 2’s, and MSA Indexes between 53.5 and 57.3.

Third overall in the competition was commercial Angus breeder Matthew Shea, who runs about 600 breeders on about 1200ha of leased, agisted and owned property run as Barfold Beef, near Kyneton Victoria. The Barfold steers finished fourth for feedlot weightgain and ninth for carcase performance, in another example of all-round versatility.

Feedlot performance, chiller performance

Runners up to Sinclair Munro and family’s Keera Lands in the feedlot weightgain division was James and Georgie Knight’s The Sisters Pastoral Co, Mortlake, VIC, with third place to Knowla Livestock, Gloucester NSW.

Topping the carcase quality division of the competition was Tom and Jane Williamson, Glenmore Livestock, Glen Innes, with entries displaying marbling scores averaging 3.5, and including a pair of 5’s, and MSA Indexes averaging 57.5. Runners-up were the Munros’ overall competition champions, followed by Bald Blair Pastoral Co, Guyra third.

Individual animal performance champion went to a steer exhibited by Richard and Prue Post, Glenavon Angus, Guyra, with Glenmore Livestock in second and Barfold Beef, third.

Strong overall performance

In overall competition statistics across the 320 steers fed and processed, the trial steers averaged 2.02kg/day ADG across the 117-day program, with almost all entries still milk-teeth at slaughter. Liveweights at induction were mostly in a band from around 420-500kg.

Dressing percentage averaged 54pc and carcase lean meat yield 53.2pc, although 27 carcases produced LMYs of 57-60pc.

Marbling scores were mostly 1’s and 2’s, although almost 30 carcases produced 3’s and five extreme bodies displayed marbling scores of 5, after only shortfed feeding duration.

Meat Standards Australia Eating Quality Index scores mostly fell in the 55-56 range, averaging 55.3, although there were a bunch of outliers in the 58-61 range.