TSBE Food Leaders Australia CEO Bruce McConnel presents Stanbroke Sales Manager Mark Harris with the 2020 Darling Downs Beef Battle Trophy at the Toowoomba Turf Club last night.

250 steak lovers last night crowned Stanbroke’s Diamantina Wagyu beef as the champion of the 2020 Darling Downs Beef Battle in Toowoomba.

The Darling Downs region may be a relatively small geographical part of Australia, but it is home to several of the nation’s best-known premium beef brands, and supports easily the highest concentration of commercial feedlots in the country. More than 50 percent of the nation’s feeding capacity is located within three hours of Toowoomba.

Now in its third year, the annual Darling Downs Beef Battle invites more than 250 individual diners at the annual dinner to blind-taste test steaks from each competing brand and then individually score them via a digital app on criteria including tenderness, juiciness, flavour and overall liking.

The eight nationally known and locally produced brands involved in the competition this year were NH Foods, Mort & Co, Rangers Valley, Stanbroke, JBS Australia, John Dee, Stockyard Beef and Four Daughters Beef.

Stanbroke’s Diamantina Wagyu striploin emerged as the victor following the night of fine wining and dining, adding to the brand’s success earlier this year when a Diamantina Angus striploin won a fourth Regatta Beef-Off taste test title in August.

Diamantina is Stanbroke’s master brand program, and encompasses a series of brands covering long fed Wagyu, 100-120 days grain fed Angus, grain fed and Certified Organic cattle.

Stanbroke Sales Manager Mark Harris, who accepted the Daring Downs Beef Battle trophy last night from TSBE Food Leaders Australia CEO Bruce McConnel, was elated with the victory.

The winning beef was Diamantina branded Wagyu striploin with a marble score of 4-5 and aged for five weeks at Stanbroke’s Grantham plant prior to delivery.

The winning entries both last night and at the Regatta competition in August were from cattle fed at the Stanbroke Feedlot at Chinchilla and processed at the company owned meatworks at Grantham in the Lockyer Valley.

Diamantina branded beef is available via retail at Stanbroke’s Peter Augustus Butcher shops in Newfarm and Camp Hill in Brisbane, and also at food service level including restaurants such as Black Hide by Gambaro’s and the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane and the Bakehouse Steakhouse in Ipswich.

A large percentage of Stanbroke’s Diamantina branded beef is exported to premium restaurant and food service establishments all over the world.

Mr Harris said that disruptions to logistics, freight and dining by COVID-19 had made 2020 a challenge earlier in the year, but for the most part issues had now improved significantly.

While third waves still presented some continuing challenge in overseas markets, the Australian domestic market returned to strength in the last quarter of the year as COVID-19 related restrictions began to ease, he said.

Click below to watch a video about the Diamantina brand: