But either way it was an impressive debut for David and Judy Gray who entered the recent Beef Spectacular Feedback Trial and any feedlot type competition.

The couple were awarded champion carcass for their Charolais/Angus cross steers.

The Jindera cattle farmers own "Granite Hill'.

Granite Hill is a 440-hectare property, running 130 stud Charolais breeders alongside a herd of Angus/Murray Grey cows, which are crossed with Charolais bulls.

Mr Gray said he was curious how his cattle compared to other farmers and was the motivation for entering his first competition.

"I just wanted to get some feedback on how my cattle compare to other breeds," Mr Gray said.

"I feel there is a lot more value in going in something like that compared to competing in the Melbourne Show or a country show for instance.

"You get a lot of pure data that you can base your breeding on.

"To come away with first prize was a huge thrill.

"It was also pleasing to see the other Charolais breeders do so well generally in the competition."

Mr Gray said the drought had taken a toll with food and water supplies nearing exhaustion.

"It is tough at the moment," he said.

"We have been hand-feeding for a while now and I've also been forced to put additional water troughs in because most of the dams are buggered.

"It's the first time the dams have gone dry in 50 years.

"We conserve a lot of feed ourselves and have silage put away.

"The only problem is we have used up a lot of that surplus and after not having a spring we didn't make any extra and have probably only got enough feed to last us until the end of May.

"We definitely need a good autumn or otherwise I will be forced to buy feed."

Despite the arid conditions Mr Gray was content with the quality of his cattle.

"Surprisingly they have been doing really well," he said.

"Normally we sell the vealer calves straight off cows at 10 months weighing around 440 kilograms.

"That's the benefit of crossbreeding, you get 20 to 30 kilograms for no extra work."

Mr Gray's herd is predominantly based on Palgrove bloodlines along with Rangan genetics.

One of their own bulls sired the competition winning steers.

The couple lost points with their crossbred herd, with one steer exceeding the 460kg entry weight.

The winning carcase had a dressing percentage of 57.2 per cent, daily weight gain of 2.57 kilograms/day, eye muscle area of 109cm sq and P8 fat of 18mm.

Mr Gray was proud to win the competition with his Charolais which is usually dominated by Angus bred cattle.

"Our Charolais calves, they finish off early and go straight to the market," he said.