IAN and Jill Coghlan have a long tradition of exhibiting winning steers in royal and regional carcass competitions, and continued their successes at this year’s Royal Easter Show in Sydney.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Gerogery-based Eurimbla Red Poll stud’s heavy-weight steer won a gold medal in the competition of 344 exhibits.
It required a carcass score of at least 90 points out of 100 and to score 15/15 for market specification and at least 37/40 for saleable meat yield and 37/45 for eating quality.
The steer’s sire, Eurimbla Leopold, had semen exported from Holbrook Breeders to Canada and New Zealand last year.
The steer was prepared by Yanco Agricultural High School with studmaster Luke Collins saying he was delighted with the win.
“To win the all-breeds section was terrific,” Mr Collins said.
But plenty of hard work was put in by the school’s 24 students who participate in the cattle showstock program.
“We received the steer at 12 months-of-age and he was 16 months when he went to Sydney,” Mr Collins said.
“So it was a bit of a mad rush to get him ready, making sure he was feeding well and all the rest.
“We showed him at the Henty Show in February to “bomb proof” him to make sure he would be comfortable in different surroundings and sounds.
“We had 24 students and parents stay in Sydney for 10 days and took 19 cattle with us: shorthorn, angus, Murray greys, Limousin, charolais, red poll and a couple of cross-bred steers.”
But the red poll steer was not the school’s only success.
“A couple of the students went well in the parading division while our stud shorthorn bull won the blue ribbon in the 12-15 months-old class,” Mr Collins said.
Mr Collins said the school also showed at the Melbourne and Canberra royal shows but their strong program would not be possible without the generosity of stud owners and beef producers who donated animals to it.
“People in the southern region have been very supportive of what we are trying to do,” he said.
A second steer with Eurimbla bloodlines was exhibited by Prairiewood High School in western Sydney, and scored 88 points to win a silver medal in the middle-weight division of the carcass competition.