In such uncertain times, when more events are cancelled than not, the RNA beef committee has forged ahead to run many of their commercially-orientated competitions.
Last week saw the efforts of Queensland and NSW cattlemen showcased and recognised, through the likes of a hook-only led steer competition, the prime beef competition, and the JBS Paddock to Palate competition.
Beef committee chair Gary Noller said the effort wasn't without many hurdles, but they were humbled by the support form producers, sponsors, processors and saleyards operators.
"Running a show that's a lot less than what it would normally be, you just go in with this false sense of anticipation thinking it was going to be a lot easier, but I don't know whether it was," Mr Noller said.
"When everything happens at the Ekka it happens quite easy, we can go from one spot to the next at a walk and this has been a little different, but we got there."
Mr Noller said the fact that the Paddock to Palate exhibits had already entered the feedlot before COVID-19 became a problem in Australia had given the committee the push to go ahead.
"If we could get the cattle then we'd go ahead, so as a committee we made a decision to go ahead with Paddock to Palate and made a decision to go ahead with the carcase side of the led steer competition," he said.
"But it wasn't until we had some proper guidelines around saleyard procedures and what could be done that we decided to go ahead with the prime competition."
Underlying those decisions was the desire to have an end point for the people that already had cattle in preparation, Mr Noller said.
"We wanted to give them an outcome at the other end, an end point for their cattle, because particularly with Paddock to Palate, people's decision to keep cattle was made this time last year for this year's event and they'd had those cattle on a rising plane of nutrition.
"We knew what was happening behind the scenes and we felt it was only fair [to go ahead]; we could only do it because of the commercial aspect of those different competitions.
"We're quite humbled by the fact that we had people [supporting the decision]."
Mr Noller said the quality of the prime beef exhibits had been faultless.
"They might have had a bit of a tough time last year, but cattle were kept on feed and we had that early break early in the year that really made the difference."
The Paddock to Palate competition shifted to JBS's Beef City Feedlot, as well as Smithfield Feedlot this year, and Mr Noller said the health and performance of the cattle at both feedlots was phenomenal.