Tony and Marg Killalea from Holbrook win grass-only beef trial

The winners of a five-month grass-fed beef trial were just announced — and they’re former Farmer of the Year champions.

Australia’s only grass-fed beef trial has been won by Angus-Shorthorn steers.

The steers, bred by former The Weekly Times Farmer of the Year winners Tony and Marg Killalea, won the combined weight gain and carcass award at the Lardner Park Steer Trial last week.

The Killaleas run a grass-fed beef operation at Wantagong near Holbrook, NSW, and their pair of steers had an average weight gain of 1.38kg a day over five months, with one of the steers gaining 1.58kg/day to be the best of all the entries.

Marg Killalea from Holbrook, NSW, with Angus-Shorthorn steers.

The trial runs from July until November and steers must fit into a kill weight range of 200-330kg and have a fat range of 8-14mm at the P8 site to qualify for the trial’s goal of producing a standard domestic trade carcass.

Marg Killalea said the winning steers were sired by a Angus-Shorthorn bull — Sprys-W Blender N514 which was artificially inseminated in a commercial program to their Angus-Shorthorn cows.

“I was confident the steers could go well as the sire had achieved high MSA (Meat Standards Australia) compliance in earlier progeny,” Ms Killalea said.

“However, over a five-month trial there can be many influencing factors, so to end up winning is really satisfying.”

Ms Killalea said the trial was unique as it was the only grass-based trial with cattle managed under independently controlled grazing conditions.

“I commend this trial to beef producers operating pasture-based systems, it’s a unique opportunity to benchmark your cattle, with valuable information provided to all entrants at the end of the trial,” she said.

Second place overall for combined weight gain and carcass merit went to Bretand Gaylene Garratt from Allambee with South Devon steers while Jones Farms from Moorooduc came third with a pair of Simmental-Angus steers, which also took out the award for the best team daily weight gain of 1.4kg/day.

The overall average weight gain for all steers was 1.17kg/day but varied from just 0.73kg/day to 1.58kg/day.

The best pair of carcasses went to Lineham Farms from Vervale with Angus while the highest eating quality (MSA Index) as a pair went to Glenfalloch Station, Licola, with Angus.