The informative Gingin Beef Innovation Day was packed with cattle showing, high quality speakers and finished with a sundowner of prime beef steak burgers courtesy of Harvey Beef – a winning combination!
The event attracted the ‘who’s who’ of beef with 150 producers and industry representatives registered to be a part of this significant day.
Consensus was that it was the best beef event Gingin has held for a long time – a credit to the organising committee and sponsors. Cattlemen and cattle women, yes about 30% of attendees were women,
of all ages came from all over the state, from the Gascoyne to Pinjarra. Beef Innovation Day committee chairman Tony Sudlow, Kapari Angus stud, Northampton, said it was a huge success.
“It was particularly satisfying for the committee, who put a lot of careful consideration into planning.” The committee included Tony and Liz Sudlow, David Roe, George Gifford, Brad and
Peter Kupsch, Ian (Sam) Collard, David Topham and Bob Wilson.
The morning kicked off in the yards with local producer David Roe who provided an insight into his beef operation. David also shared his passion to see more young people in agriculture, particularly
cattle farming given it is such an ageing group. David is hopeful that advances in technical innovation and an increase in prices might entice the next generation to follow in the field.
Zoetis Australia demonstrated how producers can use DNA technology to enhance traditional phenotypic methods of selecting replacement heifers.
Alex McDonald, who flew in from the eastern states provided some technical advice on genetics, specifically EBV traits producers should be targeting when selecting breeding stock. For those who don’t know EBV stands for ‘estimated breeding value’. The use of EBVs enables producers to look at the
genetic merit for particular traits rather than relying on on-farm measurements of animal performance, which can take years. I found this be enlightening – albeit extremely technical. It was clear
he was an expert on the subject and that Breedplan is a invaluable tool for beef producers that has evolved incredibly over 30 years, to now being able to measure over 19 traits.
Dr Peter McGilchrist, Murdoch University provided an enthusiastic presentation on the new MSA (Meat
Standards Australia) index producer feedback system. He challenged producers that with this new simple
index the ‘quality’ of a carcase will be the future in WA.
“When would producers increase their MSA index? When you get paid to increase quality,” he said. “If you care about consumers and you want to improve the lotfeeder rank of your cattle.
“It will come for WA. It is already in the east – they are now paying on the index. Producers need to know how to improve the quality for when processors start paying for the variation in carcase quality indicated by the index.”
Mr McGilchrist said the current MSA grading feedback makes it hard to judge how good a carcase
actually is.
“It is difficult, because you have so many measures like marbling, ossification, fatness, hump height
etc,” he said. “How these measures impact on quality isn’t linear, so we have made it easier. We have
produced a singular MSA index.
Mr McGilchrist explained that the MSA index is calculated by averaging the predicted eating quality of 39
muscles in the body for the most common cooking method and weighing the score of each cut by its
proportion of the total cuts’ weight.
Mr McGilchrist said the expected range will most likely be between 50 and 75, and the higher the
number the better.
“It is one score, one number for a carcase, which gives you the potential eating quality for that carcase.”
Mr McGilchrist said the purpose of the index would be to have a standard measure over time of potential carcase eating quality. This will be useful for evaluation of onfarm genetic progress and management
strategies over time,” he said.
“It is a solid benchmarking tool for suppliers of cattle and the ability to look at regional or seasonal impacts on eating quality.”
In 2014, 30% of Australia’s 9 million cattle were MSA graded. The average grading was 56.77%.
Who has the highest graded cattle in Australia? Peter challenged the audience to guess who has the highest average quality graded cattle in Australia. Not many hands went up to pick Western
Australia.
Mr McGilchrist said WA beef needs to be packed and marketed differently. We can’t compete with the high volume lower quality beef of QLD – we need to compete on quality.
He said it needed to be marketed as a niche, high quality premium product and packed and marketed according to this quality.
For many the highlight of the day was a presentation by Victor Rodwell who is widely considered a true innovator. His Boyanup dairy farm has over the years been home to numerous trials and experiments, with researchers and service providers alike recognising Vic’s passion for ‘pushing the envelope’ but also, his passion for dairying.
Victor had the audience hanging on his every word as he shared his personal experiences with dairy farming and his approach of maximising efficiency to increase profits. The third leaf concept
was not new to all but the message “know your numbers” switched on lights across the room. Firing questions at the audience; he challenged the on-farm norms; does it make more financial sense to buy feed or grow feed; nitrogen how often, when; pivot on or off. The list went on as he enthusiastically shared his intimate knowledge of the key drivers of his business and his ability to challenge the status quo, exploring ways to improve those results whether that be through science or just looking at things differently.
Doing things more efficiently not only delivers better results but just as important to Victor is more time with his family and a balanced lifestyle. He is a terrific role model for Australian farmers.
I’m left with one question. How do we clone him or get him on television into every Australian farmers home?
