Texas Angus wins half the 2019 RAS Beef Challenge

Friday 6th September was a special night for the Mayne family attending our 5th Royal Sydney Beef Challenge Awards Presentation. Never before has Texas Angus taken out half the competition nor had Judy (Ben's Mum) ever attended but what a night for her to be there with us to celebrate!

Sydney Royal Beef Challenge is one of Australia's prestigious feed and carcase trial competitions that has been running for 9 years. This year the Beef Challenge had 492 head or 82 pens of six animals which is an incredible number considering all of central and northern NSW and parts of QLD are experiencing the worst drought on record. 2015 was the first year Texas Angus entered this competition and it has been an excellent platform for us to benchmark our breeding program against some of Australia's best commercial and seedstock cattle. 

This year Texas Angus took home the ***Grand Champion 100 Day Export Pen, ***Grand Champion 100 Day Export Individual, ***Reserve Champion 70 Day Domestic Individual and ***Reserve Champion 100 Day Export Pen along with a swag of over placings.  What was most pleasing with our results was the consistency of how well our 5 pens performed against all the 82 pens in the whole competition. All of the 5 Texas Angus pens placed in the top 6 of the whole competition which is a similar result to 2018 Beef Challenge and Beef Australia's feed and carcase trial and it is our 5th consecutive year of receiving broad ribbons at this industry relevant event. This has reaffirmed our breeding program is consistently being feed efficient, carcase compliant and meeting consumer satisfaction which is now even more emphasis when cost of production is so high during this unprecedented drought. Recently Lucy Kinbacher, Livestock Editor for The Land Newspaper has stated Texas Angus has"cemented themselves as one of the country's leading carcase competition entrants". To read Lucy's article click here

Our Grand Champion Export Heifer Pen
We were so pleased to finally win the Export section as it had eluded us since being awarded the Reserve Champion Export Pen back in 2015. After the Beef Challenge had delayed entry dates we found it difficult to find animals that would meet the entry weights however this year the only positive of enduring such a poor season was having just enough lighter animals to be able to enter 2 pens in the Export section and 3 pens in the domestic section. Of the 2 pens in the export category and our heifer pen won the Grand Champion Export Pen by a country mile and our steers we awarded Reserve Champion Export Pen.

For the last 5 consecutive years we have won the profitably section and our winning pen of Export heifers were $1,118.29 more profitable than the average Export pens and nearly $400 more profitable than the 2nd place Pen for the profitably section, remembering these animals did not receive HGPs! While our Domestic Pen were $703.93 more profitable than the average Domestic pens.  We had the highest daily weight gains, the biggest EMA for both Export and Domestic pens, the second highest marbling for the domestic Pen and one of our domestic heifers blitzed the MSA scoring an incredible 68.32 points with only 70 days feed! These results clearly show our Angus are efficient and highly profitable feed converters when comparing to industry standards. Full results are below;

**Grand Champion 100 day Export Pen (heifers)

**Grand Champion 100 day Export Individual (heifer)

**Reserve Champion 100 day Export Pen (steers)

**Reserve Champion 70 Domestic Individual (heifer)

‼️ Highest MSA Individual of 68.32 to 70 Day Domestic heifer out 492 head‼️

**1st Live Assessment Export Pen & Exp Individual

♦️2nd Live Assessment Domestic Pen & Export Individual

1st DWG Domestic Individual & 2nd Export Individual

♦️ 2nd Feedlot Trial Export Pen
♦️ 2nd Carcase Judge Domestic Pen

**1st Carcase Grid Export Pen & Individual

**1st Profitability Domestic & Export Pens, 2nd Exp Individual

**1st Taste Test Domestic Individual

!!Highest EMA pens for Domestic & Exp

♦️ 2nd highest marbling for Domestic Pens
‼️ Our Export Pen (heifers) were $1,118.29 more profitable than the average Export pens and nearly $400 more profitable than the 2nd place Pen for profitability without HGPs‼️
‼️ Our Domestic Pen were $703.93 more profitable than the average Domestic pens‼️

We couldn't be happier with our caracase results winning the Carcase grid in Export and placing second in Domestic, taking out the taste test Individual for the domestic sector and achieving a massive MSA score that was noted by Mike MacCue on the night as "incredible result for a heifer". For the last 5 year we have either had the highest or second highest marbling which also follows from having the 4th highest marbling at Beef Australia's entire 1077hd competition last year.  As most would know high performing, high yielding animals of any breed normally do not marble but we believe our progeny are paradox to this theory. 

Recently there has been much debate about industry pushing high fat and lower mature cow weights.  However we truly believe our results clearly show our younger animals are not only outperforming other pure breeds and crosses with heavier carcase weights, higher yields and higher marbling but once the DEXA based scanning is in full production in processing plants our progeny will be financially rewarded. Backgrounders, feedloters and processor will be able to identify carcases and bloodlines that are profitable and base their buying decisions on this feedback.

Every year we take the ribbons and trophies to Goondiwindi to show Bill who always beams with pride.  Despite Bill's failing memory he never forgets what a Championship ribbon is especially when he won so many half a century ago.

Lastly we would like to congratulate the Royal Sydney Beef Challenge Committee for hosting such a industry relevant events including the field day and Awards night especially in such trying times. They should be commended on the number of entries they received and the MacCue Family should be congratulated on presenting the competitions animals so well with especially with the pressure of sourcing commodities in such dry times. We would also like to thank other entrants, Bob Jamieson Agencies, all other sponsors, media outlets for covering the event including The Land and Beef Central and Danni MacCue for all these amazing photos. Without everyone's involvement this great competition would not be able to be held.

2019 Bull Sale Report - Miracles can happen!

140/140 bull sold, topped at $34,000 to average $9,386

Ben Mayne announced at the end of the sale that “Scomo was right, miracles can happen and thank God for Queensland!”
Buyers and under bidders came from every state in Australia to watch a total clearance of 140 bulls offered to top at $34,000 and average an incredible $9,386. Both Ben and Wendy Mayne were elated with the sale result and believed it was their best result to date considering most of Australia is experiencing such extreme drought conditions. They were so overwhelmed with the Queensland support, they immediately announced after the sale a donation $1,000 to the Sisters of the North Charity for the flood affected cattle graziers in North West Queensland.
Return Queensland commercial buyers were dominant at the sale taking 116 bulls across the border, while NSW, VIC, SA and WA all competed fiercely for the remaining bulls. Lot 74 Texas Western Express N505(AI)(ET) took top honours of selling for $34,000 to the highly recognised Western Australian Angus stud Koojan Hills. The 918kg son of Bangadang Western Express E10 out of Texas’s matriarch donor Texas Undine Z183 ticked all the boxes for the Metcalfe family. He had phenotype, weight for age, the numbers and a history second to none. There were a total 5 flush brothers in the sale that average $18,200 with one being retained for stud duties. His dam Z183 has sold close to $850,000 in progeny without including semen sales of her sons!

The Metcalfe family were so impressed with the Texas program they couldn’t resist buying Texas’s highest ever performing bull to sell through the ring, Texas Pocock P046(AI). Like the Wallaby Player he was named after he is “one hell of a beast” with ADG 1.57kgs/day, weighing 876kgs with a moderate birth weight combined with huge growth, carcase, temperament and A1 structure. Describe as a REAL power bull that would inject serious weight into any herd.

Second top price was $32,000 for Lot 13 Texas Horse Power N229(AI) who was snapped up by South Australia’s Nampara Angus Stud who returned after purchasing in 2017. He was one of Ben’s picks of the sale and Stu and Nat Hann fell in love with N229’s sheer volume, muscling and like his name serious Horse Power. The 964kg son of Coonamble H176 and a grandson of Z183. With a 1.35kgs/day weight gain +8.8 EMA and +137 for 600 day he stood out. 13 sons of Coonamble H176 had a healthy average of $11,300.

Texas Angus Awarded 2018 Beef Farmer of the Year!

We were thrilled just to be nominated by the Weekly Times as a finalist of the The Weekly Times Coles 2018 Farmer of the Year. But to win it agmonst some of Australia's most innovative beef farmers was a massive shock and completely unexpected! Ben's unprepared speech showed our complete surprise. We are very honoured and humbled to be recognised for our contribution to the beef industry. We believe agriculture and the beef industry are set to reap huge rewards in coming years.

Below is the article that featured in this weekends newspapers Courier Mail, Sydney Sunday Telegraph, Melbourne Herald Sun, Perth Sunday Times, Adelaide Sunday Mail, Weekly Times & Qld Rural Weekly. We would like to Congratulate all finalists, winners and Tom and Pheobe Bull for winning the overall famer of the year. It was a wonderful night in Melbourne and a great weekend away for us.