THERE was a changing of the guard on the opening day of Farmfest as a second generation of exhibitors added their name to the led steer and heifer competition winners list.
Billy Goetsch, Kalbar, carried on his family's tradition of showing at Farmfest and followed in the footsteps of his father Neil by taking out the competition with a Speckle Park-Limousin cross steer named Radar.
Weighing 682 kilograms, Radar, which claimed the grand champion ribbon after taking the open class champion title, was the heaviest exhibit in this year's competition and took the fancy of competition judge Anthony Flint, Warwick, who said the winning steer was a "real standout".
"He's a power of meat, has a lot of strength and a lot of performance as well," Mr Flint said.
"On top of that, he has got a lot of thickness in behind the shoulder and carries his spring of rib all the way down with a lot of thickness down into his thighs."
Accepting the ribbon on behalf of his son, Neil Goetsch said the steer had prepared for Farmfest by competing at several local shows.
"That steer was purchased from the Combined Forces steer sale in March 2021, from there has been on feed and has been exhibited a few times now," Mr Goetsch said.
"He's had a bit of success recently at Boonah and Toogoolawah shows and was shown as a lighter steer at a few shows last year to break him in."
Attending Farmfest since its inception, Mr Goetsch said it was pleasing to see the younger generation continue to show cattle.
"Personally, I had great success when I started showing steers here 20-odd years ago and was lucky enough to win at Farmfest seven years in a row," he said.
"However, these days I don't really show cattle myself anymore, we prepare them all for sale and sell them during the sale.
"Unfortunately Billy had to work today [Tuesday] so he couldn't come along, but it is really nice to see him do well."
Radar secured the grand champion ribbon after being given the nod by Mr Flint ahead of a Limousin steer named Rumble, exhibited by Hayden Beattie, Glamorgan Vale, which had taken out the champion school junior steer ribbon.
Mr Flint said Rumble, which has got Oakwood Limousin genetics and weighed 416kg, was "a beautiful black steer".
"I really liked this calf when he came out in his early class," Mr Flint said.
"He has got a lot of strength across that top line, as well as a lot of stretch about him and I really admire the evenness and type about him.
"I think he has got a really good butt-shaped profile on him, carries the spring of rib all the way through his back and is overall really smooth.
"In the end, there wasn't much separating the top two steers, but I decided to go with the heavier one on the day."
Mr Flint commended the presentation of all 92 exhibits entered in Tuesday's competition, saying the overall quality made for difficult judging.
Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
