Ag Shows boss: Cheating and deceptive practices threaten industry reputation

QAS general manager Trevor Beckingham, OAM, FCPA, said the issue of deception from a "very small number of people" was a conversation which needed "to come out of the shadows."

He said ag shows celebrated the very best of rural life and anyone using deceptive practices to win at any cost was threatening the integrity and good name of the wider agricultural industry.

And while the days where a dairy farmer might lightly smear a bucket with butter before a cow was milked to get a higher buttermilk reading are long past, current cheating practices, some of which could involve animal welfare issues, are in danger of causing a lack of confidence in a market which farmers can ill-afford to lose.

"We need to work towards creating a level playing field where fairness and integrity are paramount at all ag shows," he said.

"Breeding and feeding livestock champions, or artificially manufacturing them, was a critical distinction that determines whether livestock competitions are truly fair and equitable, we don't want this to bring the industry into disrepute.

"Cheaters are very subversive, they know what evidence they need to get rid of, unfortunately a lot of the drugs they are misusing are easily available from vets or beef or dairy farmers."

Last December Mr Beckingham co-hosted a panel 'The Elephant in the Room', in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the International Association of Fairs and Expos convention, where he said agricultural shows in North America faced very similar challenges to those in Australia.

According to the IAFE, the seminar was very well received as the topic was one concerning event holders around the world.

Considered by many in the ag show industry as a taboo topic, Mr Beckingham said it was critical the issue be discussed openly to ensure everyone within the agricultural and wider communities have faith in the judging process and stamp of any prevalence of performance-enhancing practices in livestock competitions.

"Some of the readily available animal medications such as pink eye treatment (colloidal silver) which is used for genuine treatments, is being misused," he said.

"We do not want to be in a position where the quest to breed and feed the perfect animal has been reduced to who can best evade detection using practices that should not be allowed."

Mr Beckingham said cheating goes beyond drug and chemical misuse.

"It involves all sorts of enhancing practices, but I feel we are not yet at the stage which in the US has seen unscrupulous breeders inject air into the rumps of sheep and hogs to flatten to produce a more pleasing result," he said.

"This is a really serious issue for their packers meat processors because when air is injected into muscle fibre to make an an animal appear firmer, it causes embolism which can cause deterioration of the muscle fibre and makes the carcass unable to be processed."

Animal welfare issues were at the forefront of stamping out these practices, he said.

"I feel a small percentage of people don't want to put in the hard work to produce top quality livestock," he said.

"Genetics will suffer; once people were prepared to put a lifetime into breeding bad traits out and the good ones in, so a prize-winning animal did not need a reed slipped up a wonky teat

"Another downside is when genuine breeders hear of a cheater exhibiting at a show, they say 'what's the point?' and don't attend, so we lose decent exhibitors as cheaters perpetuate.

"Cheaters may appear likeable but they aim to get away with what they can while they can, they want to get a premium prize and a price for an animal or its progeny which they don't deserve."

Show committees are encouraged to put measures in place to stop these practices, including employing judges who support a level playing field.

"Show committees are encouraged to access online QAS resources including the Show Ring Code of Ethics to download and implement as they could be liable if they don't show they're actively working to stamp cheating out," he said.

Mr Beckingham said he had heard from some judges who believed if they brought up cheating at certain shows they would not be invited back.

"Evil flourishes while good people do nothing," he said.

"It's easy to walk away and let them get away with it, but this too important not to act.

"The last thing we want is for people to lose confidence in ag shows about the results or how animals are being treated.

"We had one case reported where a cow was sedated with a readily available legal livestock medication, probably because the farmer had not taken time to break her to halter, she was so sedated could not walk around the ring.

""Do you want to buy milk from a farmer who cheats? I certainly wouldn't."

Mr Beckingham said the tiny percentage of cheats are well aware of all the rules and regulations.

"Absolutely, they are lawyered up," he said.

"They have excellent legal back up to help them get away with it.

"If you see something that does not seem right at an ag show, please report it to officials."

NSW show testing

In NSW, former Royal Easter Show president and current chair of the cattle section, Michael Millner said animal testing has been undertaken there for around 20 years.

"Right across our livestock sections, the successful cattle, horse and dogs have their urine drug tested as are a random selection of other animals, I think we have a pretty level playing field," he said.

"Over the years we have had a few positives, but certainly better now than it was."

Mr Milner said giving cattle painkillers was a well-known subterfuge.

"Animal welfare comes first," he said.

Mr Millner said if an animal did pull up lame on the showgrounds, vets were available 24/7 to administer appropriate treatments.

"Test results can take a couple of weeks following the event," he said.

"If there are discrepancies, the exhibitor then goes before a disciplinary committee and is asked to explain.

"In extreme cases if they are found guilty they may lose their award or are suspended for a period of time."

In 2022, the Journal of Analytical Toxicology published Testing for Prohibited Substances in Rural Agricultural Show Exhibits: A Twenty-Three Year Experience which discussed "the administration of prohibited substances has been used in agricultural show competitions and animal racing industries to gain unfair competitive advantages".

The authors of the study wrote that "transparent communication of the principles of drug testing and the successful detection of illicit substances is essential to the deterrent effect of the testing regime".

Meanwhile, last August, an international show show judge PJ Budler who was a guest judge at Ekka said he believed the show industry in many parts of the world is "divorced" from the commercial cattle sector and runs the risk of turning cattle into "circus animals".

Queensland Country Life is not suggesting any entrants of livestock awards at any QAS events have participated in unethical or illegal chemical or drug enhancement of their animals.