Carcass comp open to more schools and all breeds

In its third year, the Bauhinia Carcass Classic is now open to all high schools with ag programs in the Central Highlands and to all breeds of cattle.

For the past two competitions, the only school taking part was Springsure State School, with the cattle entries restricted to flat backs.

Classic president Troy Roberts said the idea of getting more schools involved was to get more kids interested in working in agriculture.

"I think if you can get any kids in town, if you can get five per cent of those kids into the bush or rural industry later on or after school, it's a start," he said.

"It's an industry that you want to keep going...and you'd be surprised how many kids in town want that opening to the bush and when they get there they don't leave."

Classic organiser Naomi Loch said students had the option of getting a beast and going all the way through the competition or they could just review the carcass data and attend the field day at Vandyke Feedlot to see how different sectors of the cattle industry worked.

Entries have just opened for the competition and will close on May 11. In 2022, there were nearly 300 entries while in 2023 there were 200.

"We've opened it up this year to all breeds so we're hoping to try and get similar numbers as previous years because that makes it viable to put them through the feedlot and gives us more options to get more money for producers at the end of the day," Ms Loch said.

"It was limited last year on its Bos Indicus content because we were aiming for a certain market. This year we've opened it up to all so we can go for as many markets as possible.

"Before that it was only flat backs - you could only have 50 per cent Bos Indicus as the highest for steers and 25 per cent for heifers."

Mr Roberts said they had decided to go into the heavy feeder job this year instead of the light feeder job for Woolworths or Coles to open it up to more people in the area.

"Because cattle at that time of the year in this area are roughly ready to go in at that weight so hopefully we do pick up some more pens," he said.

"It's a very good cattle area so any breed that comes in is generally good quality cattle so the line up for the last two years has been terrific - as good as you see anywhere - so hopefully going forward this year we see some of the other breeds with a bit of hump in them, a bit of (Bos Indicus) content in them, and see how they stand up against the other cattle."

Ms Loch said the whole reason they started the carcass competition was to keep the cattle section of the Springsure Show alive.

Mr Roberts said they were lucky the competition had been strongly supported by both producers and sponsors.

"We've got terrific sponsors who have been backing us up since the start - we're very lucky to have them and the people to support us," he said.

Entries go to Vandyke Feedlot for 100 days.

Last year, Callistemon Cattle Co, owned by Mr Roberts and his family, was the most successful exhibitor.