An Angus/Hereford team of steers from Melon Pastoral has come away as equal champions of the feedlot performance category, gaining over two kilograms per head per day.
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See subscription optionsScoring a total of 260 points from a possible 350 to take out the joint top place, the black baldy team from the Roslyn-based operation finished 11th overall with a total score of 693pts.
The team's profit of $1301.82 above the average sat them fourth overall for profitability.
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Melon Pastoral manager Tim Reid said the September/October 2019-drop steers were out of Angus cows and by JTR Poll Hereford bulls.
"They were the younger of our steers ... we use Herefords to back up our AI [artificial insemination] program," he said. "If we would've made full points at entry we would have been eight points higher, landing us in the top 10."
Mr Reid said they first entered the trial five years ago to gain more feedback about their animals.
"Selling weaners (onto backgrounders) we don't get a lot of feedback on our progeny so this was taking advantage of seeing where we sit within industry," he said.
Feedlot performance is a large focal point of the Melon Pastoral operation which consists of around 450 breeders.
"That is where our market is - 90 per cent of our weaners go to backgrounders then onto feedlots," he said.
"We are finding we are getting a few different clients that are chasing the antibiotic free, grass-fed, especially in our black baldy side of things."
"We are trying to breed a female herd that is set up to go down the eating quality side of things if the market ever changes from cents per kilo to extra cents for eating quality," he said.
"We have been putting that into our selection criteria for the 5-6 years."
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