Stockyard’s David Clark, right, accepts the Dick Stone Trophy for Champion Branded Meat with Dick Stone’s Grandson, Richard.

IF there was an award for consistency of performance in branded beef taste test competitions across Australia, Queensland’s Stockyard Beef would go straight into the Hall of Fame.

The Hart family’s Stockyard business, driven by its Kerwee feedlot on the Darling Downs, claimed another champion beef title at the 2024 Sydney Royal Fine Food Show this week, before earning the event’s Dick Stone* Perpetual Trophy for branded meat grand champion exhibit among all meat protein competitions held this year, covering beef, lamb, pork and poultry.

Since the Sydney Show started its Fine Foods judging awards in 2005, Stockyard has won no less than 41 titles, including championships and various classes with its grainfed Angus and Wagyu programs. Add similar success at Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth Shows and the annual Wagyu Branded Beef judging competitions, and Stockyard is easily the most awarded branded beef supply chain in Australia.

This year, it was Stockyard’s Kiwami* Wagyu program  (*Japanese for Outstanding Excellence), built around marbling score 9+ Fullblood Wagyu fed a minimum of 400 days at Kerwee that claimed the top Sydney honours.

The entry topped 34 beef samples entered by many of Australia’s best known beef brand programs, scoring 94.17 points, nearly two full points ahead of the next highest entry.

“As producers, we rarely get the chance to directly see the enjoyment of our product, whether it’s served in a restaurant or at home. So, awards like these give us the confidence that we’re consistently delivering an exceptional product that meets the mark,” Stockyard’s general manager of sales, David Clark said.

Stockyard’s enduring success in awards and consistent quality is due in part to its focus on genetics, both via its own Wagyu seedstock herd as well as among its suppliers.

This year’s winning Sydney Show Fine Food Awards winner was harvested from a steer bred by the the Christiansen Family from west of Roma in Queensland, who have been long-term suppliers into Stockyard Wagyu beef programs, aligning with the company’s commitment to sustainable beef production.

In the same competition in Sydney this year, Stockyard also earned a silver medal for an entry representing its Stockyard Black program, reserved for Wagyu beef delivering marbling scores 8-9, while Stockyard Gold, a 200 day long-fed Angus product earned a bronze medal in the in Grainfed class.

“Competitions like the Sydney Royal are vital to the Australian food and beverage industry as they allow producers to benchmark their products against industry standards, which then helps drive product quality,” Mr Clark said.

Sydney Royal Fine Food committee chair Michael Bullen said in recent years, the industry has seen a focus on sustainability, productivity and better management practices, and we are really seeing this reflected in the high quality of meat that Australia. Ninety eight percent of branded meat entries this year produced a gold, silver or bronze medal, he said.

Stockyard’s Kiwami Wagyu

Sydney’s other class winners

Among other class winners in the Sydney competition this year, the grainfed beef division was won by Harmony Agriculture & Food Co, Melbourne, with a sample of the company’s Omino Wagyu scoring the class’s only gold medal.

The grassfed class was won by the Mawhood family’s Sunny Point Pastoral Co, Oberon NSW with a sample of its Sunny Point Beef program based on Angus genetics.

• Stockyard’s chief executive Lachie Hart sits down with Beef Central’s Weekly Grill podcast host Kerry Lonergan to chew the fat next week.

* The late Dick Stone, whose name the Sydney award bears, was regarded as a pioneer of lotfeeding and branded beef programs in Australia, launching his Oakleigh Barley Beef program in his Sydney butcher shops in the 1960s. Beef was produced in the Stone family’s Oakleigh feedlot built near Canowindra in NSW in 1960.