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Carcass Grading Competition

Forsythe Wins N. Ireland Carcase Grading Competition

The Northern Ireland Limousin Club Carcase Grading Competition, introduced as part of the Club’s 25th Anniversary Events and running for 12 months, has now been completed and Mr David Workman, Head of Northern Bank’s Agribusiness, the event sponsors, handed over the awards at a prizegiving held at M A Quail’s, Banbridge.

This unique competition, in which participants were asked to submit “kill sheets” in respect of Limousin and Limousin-cross animals forwarded to meat plants, was a new venture by the Club and designed as a more thorough test of carcase quality than the more common visual assessment. The kill sheets were then forwarded to LMC for verification and subsequently each individual entry was awarded points according to set criteria related to weight, fat cover and grade. For instance, the optimum score for a steer would be: if between 340 & 380 Kg – 3 points: If a fat cover of “3” – 3 points; if conformation “E” – 5 points, representing a "possible" 11 points per carcase with a sliding scale of scores covering lower gradings. Completed scores were then aggregated and a percentage score given.

When all entries were verified and assessed, the overall winner was Mr W E Forsythe from Gilford, Co Down with a score of 73.63% while in reserve place was Mr Terence McDonnell of Belleeks, Newry with 71.81%.

Both the winner and the runner-up commented favourably on the influence of Limousin in the beef sector at the present time. In accordance with the rules of the competition, the animals presented at the meat plants were, by definition Limousin or Limousin-crosses, and Edmund Forsythe’s finished animals came almost entirely from his suckler herd of Limousin-cross females. The majority of Terence McDonnell’s animals were bought as stores and finished.

Other aspects of the winners’ entries worthy of note are:
·      Both Mr Forsythe and Mr McDonnell had a figure of 80% grade U’s
·      65% of Mr Forsythe’s grades were U3’s with 15% E’s
·      60% of Mr McDonnell’s grades were U3’s

This competition demonstrated once again how the Limousin fits in so well with the market demands for carcases that are light of bone, have low fat cover and good conformation and there is no doubt that producing what the market wants always pays dividends. The Northern Ireland Limousin Club members wishes to thank all who took part in the competition; they congratulate the winners and place on record their appreciation of Mr David Workman and the Northern Bank for the generous sponsorship and Dr Mike Tempest and the LMC for the assistance in verification.

Northern Ireland Carcass Grading Competition

As part of a series of special events to mark its 25th anniversary, the Northern Ireland Limousin Club, together with the Northern Bank, has launched a unique carcass grading competition which is open to all beef producers with Limousin or Limousin cross cattle as recorded with APHIS.

The competition will run for a full year, starting with animals killed on and after April 1, 2005 and continuing until June 30, 2006.

All animals entered will have their grades independently verified by the Livestock and Meat Commission. Bulls, steers and heifers will be scored by weights, by grades and by conformation and an average score will be calculated for each producer at the end of each quarter with the producer with the highest average score being determined the ‘Quarterly Winner’.

There will be cash prizes for the quarterly winners in each category and for the eventual overall winner at the end of the competition. Prizes have been kindly sponsored by the Northern Bank.