Stanbroke’s Diamantina Wagyu beef brand has again taken out top honours in the Darling Downs Beef Battle for the third year running, continuing its winning streak of the prestigious award.
The battle has been running since 2018 and is now the biggest event hosted by Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise (TSBE). Held at Toowoomba’s Clifford Park, this year took a different approach to previous competitions. In addition to the 400 diners who were judges on the night, the previous evening saw a panel of professional judges’ taste test the steaks – contributing 50% of the vote weight. Diners sampled cuts from eight beef producers operating in the local Darling Downs region, with an extra steak added at the beginning of the evening as a “palate-setter” to open the judging.
Diners scored each cut over five categories: beef flavour, flavour intensity, tenderness, juiciness, and overall liking.
Stanbroke’s winning cut was a striploin with marbling score 5, carrying Wagyu genetics with some Angus. It came from a steer bred on Stanbroke’s country in the Gulf of Carpentaria which was backgrounded and finished in the Stanbroke Feedlot at Chinchilla prior to being hand selected at the Processing Plant in Grantham.
Stanbroke Domestic sales representative Chris Woolhouse said he was humbled and excited by the result. “We weren’t expecting to take out the trifecta this evening. The steaks that were put up were all fantastic, so to hear our name being called as the winner was incredibly exciting.”
“I think these competitions help everyone in the industry strive to become better about what they are producing, how they are handling the animal and what they are presenting to the consumer,” he said.
The winning Diamantina Wagyu brand striploin steak is available to the public from Peter Augustus in Brisbane.