Rockhampton State High School led steer wins CQ Carcase Classic hoof component

The event was held inconjunction with the Junior Beef Show held at the Rockhampton showgrounds on Thursday.

The led steer hoof and hook class nine competition saw 33 led steers from across central Queensland converge into the show ring for judging.

Exhibited by Rockhampton State High School grade 10 student Megan Mitchell, a 596 kilogram ultrablack steer named Sid won the led steer hoof component section.

The local school exhibited speckled park and ultrablack animals for the competition and their agriculture assistant Andrew Oram said the win was a "good surprise" for the school.

"There's a lot of exceptional good steers exhibited each year, that have come from custom fitters and we weren't expecting the ultrablack steer to win," Mr Oram said.

"It's a good surprise and it's a credit to the kids that have been working him and doing all the hard work behind the scenes. We've been fattening him up and doing all the prep work with him.

"We've had Sid for just over 12 months and he comes from a property out near Baralaba and was bred by Broadwater.

"It'll be very interesting to see the end result and how he goes on the hook."

Coming in closely in second place was a charolais led steer called Snowballs, which was exhibited by Jason Jeynes and Julie Sheehan, JJ Fitting and Brock, Ally and Jimmy Gray.

He was the heaviest steer in the class, weighing in at 760kg.

A brangus cross steer called Pat placed third in the top ten class and was exhibited by Becky Statham.

Rockhampton State High School also won fourth place with their speckle park led steer called Andy.

Having the tough job of judging the draft of led steers was Teys Australias Biloela general manager Ethan Mooney.

Ethan is no stranger to beef industry, having spent the last seven years as a livestock buyer across Queensland.

In his address to the crowd, Mr Mooney said it was an exceptional lineup of steers on display.

"It was a really hard class to judge, but at the same time it's was a privilege to be able to actually judge all of those steers," Mr Mooney said.

"I think all of the exhibitors should be very proud of the products and the catalogue they've put up here today."

"The steer in first place is an exceptional steer that I found has the perfect balance between yield and the quality component for me.

"He's an animal that I believe is going to yield exceptionally well, yet also has those softness and quality components that we're looking for."

Mr Mooney also acknowledged the steer in second place, which was the biggest and heaviest steer in the class at 760 kilograms live weight.

"He's an extremely well finished steer. He's extremely wide across the back end and well finished for the breed that he is," he said.

"You probably couldn't walk past the animal with its presence in the ring. It really did show itself as being the biggest and showed it self as one of the yielding animals.

"Not a lot of waste all the way through that twist down through the cod, so extremely great animal.

"The steer I've got in third place, he's a really nice black steer. He's extremely wide across his top end, with a really nice strong loin, good coverage, tracks very well along that backline.

Mr Mooney further attributed the success of the top three steers to how well finished their brisket and dewlamp's were and their overall fat coverage.

The led steers will killed on July 3, with the overall CQ Carcase Classic results to be announced at a presentation dinner on Friday July 23 in Rockhampton.