Beef 2024 accepts Ultrablacks and Ultrareds as a separate breed for stud cattle judging

Brangus Australia president Brad Saunders said they had never been shown in Australia as a separate breed at a major event such as Beef 2024.

"Ninety per cent of the people will be showing Brangus and Ultrablack," he said.

"They are in the ring straight after the Brangus (at Beef 2024) ...and will be judged by the same judge," he said.

"It took a fair bit of work to get them in."

Mr Saunders said the Ultrablacks had always been their own breed and had been able to be shown at local shows.

"But at the Royal shows - Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Beef and Adelaide -... every show committee has got to make that call," he said.

Brad Hanson of Bullakeana Brangus and Ultrablacks, Theodore, said he would enter a cow and calf, a heifer and three bulls in the new Ultrablacks breeds section at Beef 2024.

"This is the next step for promotion of the Ultrablacks. They've been pretty popular through the sale rings and doing very well for people. Yes, it's just the next step to promote them," he said.

Telpara Hills Brangus and Ultrablacks business manager Fiona Pearce said she was very pleased with the announcement regarding Ultrablack and Ultrared cattle.

"It's a big deal," she said.

'It's great for the Ultrablack breed as a subsidiary of the Brangus breed.

"It recognises the Ultrablack, which contains a different percentage of Brahman, is the result of hard work by producers who choose the best genetics of the Angus breed into the already successful Brangus."

Mrs Pearce said the beef industry recognising the commercial potential of the Ultrablack makes excellent business sense.

"At the end of the day we are all in the beef industry and producing a beef product," she said.

"If people can see there is strength in this breed, then this is 100 per cent the industry moving and growing in the right direction."

Beef Australia chief executive officer Simon Irwin said the Ultrablacks and Ultrareds had fulfilled the requirements of a cattle breed.

"They have a herd book and their own constitution and rules... so they put their case," he said.

"It's not the first time, Beef is non-denominational when it comes to cattle so we just have a list of boxes that you need to tick and we're happy to welcome them."

Mr Irwin said the Ultrablacks and Ultrareds would be the only new breed to be judged at Beef 2024.

But he said there had been preliminary interest from some of the other African breeds to come back such as the Drakensburgers, the Tulis and the Mashonas, but they were not new breeds.

"They are just old breeds that are new to Beef (Australia) although some of them have been before I think, but we'll possibly see a return of the African breeds (next year)."

Mr Irwin said as registrations had not opened yet for the stud cattle competitions he did not know who would be coming at this stage.

"The only thing about the Ultrablacks and Ultrareds was that it's a breed competition and not an animal competition so Beef (Australia) accepted them as a breed," he said.

Registrations for the Nutrien Ag Solutions Stud Cattle Championship at Beef Australia open on December 18, 2023, and close on February 16, 2024.