Wandoan beef producers Brodie and Vickie Budd, Cooaga, have taken top honours in the Wandoan Show's Beef Bonanza carcase competition for a second year in a row.
Their pen-of-three Charolais-cross steers narrowly beat an entry from the Perkins and Dougherty family, Wandoan, by just 0.5 of a point in the 100 day steer division.
As a mob, the milk-to-four-teeth steers had a daily weight gain of 2.36 kilograms, and an average kill weight of 346kg with 14.2 millimetres of fat.
Fielding entries in the 70 day heifer division for the first time, the Budds once again scraped in for the win by half a point, beating the entry from their children Sam and Holly.
The pen-of-three, milk-to-two-teeth Charolais-cross heifers had a daily weight gain of 2.1kg and an average kill weight of 243kg, with 9.6mm of fat.
Brodie Budd said they were happy to get the win, but it was more about the fun of the community event.
"It's good for the community, and gets everyone together - well normally it does," he said.
"The heifers were own-bred cattle and the steers were bought out of Casino.
"They were 200 to 250kg when we bought them and they were backgrounded in the paddock for a while.
"We got a mob in that we thought were roughly the right weight then went through and picked a few steers out. At the time, all of our cattle were on feed so it wasn't hard to pick a few good ones."
When asked about just taking the win ahead of their kids, Mr Budd said if he had known the way it was going to go, he would have swapped the names around.
Prime cattle steward Shane Westman said in total, they had 80 steers entered in the 100 day grain-fed ox category which were killed at Kilcoy, and 70 heifers in the 70 day Woolworths trade category.
"Considering the tough season we had, I think we were very lucky to get the lineup that we got," Mr Westman said.
"We had quite a lot of breeds represented and they all finished very well - a real credit to the way Tim and Tammy Stiller at Weeroona Feedlot, Guluguba, fed them."
Despite the Charolais-cross breed taking most of the podium positions when the final results were tallied, Mr Westman said you wouldn't have picked that on the hoof.
"At the inspection day, the Charolais probably didn't stand out any more than the rest," he said.
"There was a couple pens of Santas that really took your eye.
"On the hoof, there wasn't much between a lot of the breeds."
Other results -
- Class 1A - pen of three steers aggregate weight gain: Neville Weldon, Sundown, Wandoan (2.785kg/day for Santa-cross).
- Class 1B - champion steer carcase: Brodie and Vickie Budd, Cooaga, Wandoan (Charolais-cross).
- Class 2A - pen of three heifers aggregate weight gain: Bill and Gail Blackley, Biloela, Wandoan (2.598kg/day for Angus).
- Class 2B - champion heifer carcase: Tim and Tammy Stiller, Weeroona, Guluguba (Charolais-cross).
With the current social distancing restrictions causing the Wandoan Show to be cancelled, presentations were not held as part of the prime cattle competition.
This year, the prize money increased to $10,000, up from the $4000 prize for the steers last year.