Hosted by Meat & Livestock Australia, the series will travel to six states across the country, with each event featuring an interactive forum centred around the theme of “Growing and grading the greatest meat on earth”, followed by the awards ceremony.
Registrations are now open for the half-day forums, which are designed to equip producers with the tools to make practical on-farm changes to benefit their herd’s eating quality outcomes, the end consumer, and the profitability of the industry.
The biennial series, originally due to be held in September and October 2021, was rescheduled to 2022 due to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions.
The awards are presented to top-performing MSA registered producers and are based on MSA Index results for MSA graded cattle during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years.
Awards will be announced in each state for Most Outstanding MSA Feedlot (with the exception of Tasmania), and two awards for Most Outstanding MSA Beef Producers, to recognise producers of both larger (Band 1) and smaller (Band 2) MSA consignments.
One producer from each state will also win the MSA Excellence in Eating Quality Progress Award for showing the greatest improvement in their MSA results since the last awards series.
A new award will be presented to one producer in each state for the Champion MSA Index Carcase.
This will be presented for an individual carcase that had the highest MSA Index in the state over the two-year period.
MSA was developed by the Australian red meat industry to improve eating quality consistency of beef and sheepmeat.
The MSA beef program is based on almost 1.2 million consumer taste tests from more than 171,000 consumers from 11 countries and takes into account the factors that affect eating quality from the paddock to plate.
MSA’s David Packer said the forums would provide the opportunity for beef producers and others along the supply chain to hear from the MLA leadership team and industry speakers on how to maximise value using the MSA program.
“The strong eating quality performance of Australian beef over 2019-21 has been supported by participation along the entire Australian red meat supply chain,” Dr Packer said.
“I hope to see many members of our red meat industry at these events, so we can celebrate these outstanding results together."
The awards and producer forums are free to attend, but registration is essential, and numbers are limited.
The Victorian forum will be held on Tuesday, March 1, at The Cube Wodonga, 118 Hovell St, Wodonga.
Visit the MLA website for more information.