South Australia’s best MSA producers awarded
29 September 2017
Beef producers from southern regions of South Australia have taken out the top awards at the 2017 Meat Standards Australia (MSA) Excellence in Eating Quality Awards for the State, presented at Gawler last night.
The Awards recognise producers who have achieved outstanding compliance rates to MSA specifications, as well as high eating quality, as represented by MSA Index results for beef carcases graded during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years.
Michael Famularo and James Sackl, Blue Lake Station, Kongorong, near Mt Gambier, were awarded the Most Outstanding Beef Producer award. This award was open to any production system, with the exclusion of accredited grainfed beef. (Click here for more details about Blue Lake Station’s operations)
Located close to the Southern Ocean in the coastal area of Wandearah, Lynton and Sonia Joyce, Englefield Grange feedlot, were awarded Most Outstanding Beef Producer – Grainfed. Cattle from feedlots accredited under the National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme (NFAS) and that met the Australian Grainfed Standards were included in this category. (Click here for more details about Englefield Grange feedlot)
Grassfed beef producer, Leigh Clifford, Gowan Brae, Millicent, won the inaugural MSA Excellence in Eating Quality Progress Award for South Australia for showing the greatest improvement in his MSA results since the 2014-15 financial year.
MSA Program Manager Sarah Strachan said the awards recognised the outstanding commitment by the producers for turning off cattle that consistently achieved exceptional compliance rates to MSA’s strict specifications.
“To help with continuously improving eating quality, MSA-registered producers are provided with ongoing feedback on their livestock, accessible through myMSA, which now offers producers the ability to benchmark their performance against other producers in the state as well. These producers are showing they are taking notice of that information to achieve results,” Ms Strachan said.
“Blue Lake Station won the title from a field comprising 759 registered MSA producers in South Australia who consigned cattle during 2015-17.
“During 2015-17, 35% of all cattle consigned to MSA from South Australia were grainfed. Englefield Grange are congratulated on winning the grainfed award in South Australia.
“Throughout Australia, more than 14,000 producers consigned almost 5.9 million cattle to the MSA program during 2015-17.”
To be eligible for the awards, a producer’s annual MSA-graded volume had to be equal to or above the average volume consigned for the State in which they were produced.
Each producer that met the eligibility criteria received a score out of 100 weighted on two factors - the compliance to MSA minimum requirements, and eating quality performance as determined by the MSA Index for cattle consigned to MSA in 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years.
The Awards aim to raise awareness of best management practice from producers who consistently deliver high eating quality beef in their state ultimately for the benefit of consumers and for the profitability of the industry.
The South Australian awards are the fifth of the MSA Excellence in Eating Quality Awards to be held throughout Australia and are being staged in conjunction with the ‘What Makes the Perfect MSA Index’ producer forums in each state.
MSA was developed by the Australian red meat industry to improve beef eating quality consistency. The system is based on over 700,000 consumer taste tests by over 100,000 consumers from nine countries and takes into account all factors that affect the eating quality from the paddock to the plate.
To find out more information about the MSA Program visit: https://www.mla.com.au/msa
MSA producers can access their carcase feedback at www.mymsa.com.au
