Historic show win for Warwick grazier

Grazier claims Warwick Show cattle gong five decades after first title.

Bill Gross with the ribbon for his champion pen of three prime cattle at the Warwick Show. Picture: Sonja Koremans

FIFTY years ago Bill Gross notched up his first prime cattle win at the Warwick Show, so taking home a coveted purple ribbon at this year's event was cause for celebration.

Every year since 1967, Bill and Nancy Gross have entered livestock from their family operation, Risdon Feedlot, near Warwick, and won a broad ribbon.

But Mr Gross said this was the year he wanted to take home a top gong in the hotly contested prime cattle competition.

"It's the show's 150th year so that made it even more special to be entering but I also wanted to mark the five decades since we won champion bullock at the centenary show with a hereford steer I bred at Maryvale,” he said.

Mr Gross brought a photo of the winning bullock for good luck and the snap and his cattle didn't let him down.

On Friday, he won champion pen of steers with his limousin cattle, which weighed in with a single top weight of 465kg.

"I think the judges were impressed with the steers; growth for age and meat yield,” said Mr Gross, who also heads the beef committee.

"We had some top quality entries in the prime cattle this year so it was an honour to win this section.”

The cattle producer, who runs about 500 head, said he believed the high calibre of entries in the prime cattle section this year at the show was the result of a good season and selective breeding.

Mr Gross said there were 47 entries in the competition overall.

"It was a solid number of entries but, because the beef market is so buoyant, it may have been down a little on some record years,” he said.

"Producers would have been eager to make the most of the beef prices in the past few months so that may have less prime cattle entries.”

This year's grand champion beast of the show went to newcomers Trevyn Weierm, from Clifton.

He won with a limousin, hereford, droughtmaster cross heifer, which made $3.67/kg live weight and was purchased by R&P Bell Butchers in Warwick.

Prime cattle steward Glen Whitton said the composition and finish on the cattle at this year's show had been outstanding. He said the champion beast of show and reserve champion beast of show were well finished and exhibited even confirmation and a good fat ratio.

A relatively new cattle breed to the region, speckle park, impressed judges and was a crowd pleaser, Mr Whitton said.

"Speck park is a British breed that came out of Canada and is proving very popular with the region's producers and starting to win a lot of events,” Mr Whitton said.

"They have good conformation, are very well fleshed out and their meat quality is excellent.”

He said limousin had also been a standout in the prime cattle competition.