Brunswick beef best in the West
A Brunswick beef-producing family has beaten the challenge by South West and Great Southern rivals to win WA's first paddock-to-plate beef supply chain competition.
John and Rodney Galati were the overall winners of the inaugural Harvey Beef Gate 2 Plate Feedlot Challenge, announced on May 22.
The Albany Agricultural Society competition involved 59 teams of three owner-bred animals being entered into a feedlot near Albany for 77 days to be grain-fed then processed and the carcasses graded.
Points were awarded for feedlot and processor profitability and carcass quality.
Along with the top prize for the Galatis' Angus-cross-Limousin team of cattle, the family also won awards for the individual heifer with the highest points across all sections, as well as the team with the best feedlot performance.
Rodney Galati said the family was not known for entering competitions but he got the urge after seeing advertisements at the saleyards in Mount Barker.
"From that moment, I thought to myself 'I've got to enter this' and in the end, you want to see how your cattle are going in comparison to everybody else's and make sure you are on the right track," he said.
"We don't go chasing competitions and this was more of a learning exercise because the organisers gave everyone a booklet about how their team performed over the whole competition and every cost involved."
The win follows an impressive performance at Beef Australia 2015 in Rockhampton, where the Galati's Charolais-cross-Angus calves placed third in the grain-fed heavy steer and heifer section, as well as a first placing in the 230kg-285kg section of the Harvey Agricultural Show carcass competition.
Mr Galati said he was happy about bringing home the award from Rockhampton because it was a nationwide prize.
