A bloody beauty of a prize beast
"A REAL standout" was how veteran beef man Bill Gross described his family's winning steer which took out yesterday's 2012 Warwick Show prime cattle competition.
With all things livestock dominating the Friday Show program, the judges had a tough time with both cattle and lambs, but in the case of the Gross' Champion Beast it was no contest.
"He was a Limousin cross steer and he just stood out from the rest right from the word go," Mr Gross said.
"The judge noticed him straight away; he was bought by Lyons St Butchery."
The steer, weighing in at 535 kilograms, was owned by grandsons Lachlan, Ben and Jacob Gross and fetched a healthy $2.60 a kilo.
Other cattle winners included Ian and Ann Coy of Swan Creek and Bill Ellis of Tannymorel.
Over at the prime lamb shed numbers were up but prices did not reach the dizzy heights of 2011.
Brent and Kerrie Rubie - who last year achieved the top price of $360 - still featured heavily in this year's returns, once again selling the Supreme Champion Lamb of Show, to Gross Wholesale Meats for $163.
Steward Joe Browne said there was triple the number of attendees at the lamb pens than normal yesterday, a sign that interest in the industry continues to grow.
Mr Browne said prices for heavy export lambs had come back from last year's lofty heights due to US consumers now demanding smaller cuts for cost reasons, but the domestic butcher prices at the Show were "on a par" with last year.
