Gate 2 Plate Challenge: WA’s biggest feedlot competition takes on its first back-to-back champions

Serpentine-based commercial cattle producers Bert and Agatha Veenendaal of Evensong Farm were over the moon when they took out the overall win in the 11th annual Gate 2 Plate Challenge competition. The couple were the first to win the prestigious title back-to-back at the challenge awards presentation held in Albany on June 7, when it was revealed their cattle team of three steers scored 221.503 points to rank first. Manypeaks cattle producer Kieran Howie was awarded the runner-up prize for his cattle team that scored 207.656 points to rank second. Mr Veenendaal said the win was a wonderful surprise and validated his crossbred genetic makeup using Red Angus cross Blonde d’ Aquitaine to produce “butcher appreciated” carcase specifications. “I just love the data that is derived from this competition, it’s a wonderful guide towards improvement,” he said. “We’ve been cattle breeding for only six of our semi-retirement years, it’s a play with different equations (genetics) to see what I can come up with. “We run Jutland Park Red Angus bulls over Superior Blondes females as a rule.” Mr Veenendaal, who grew up in Canada where his father had a hobby farm, immigrated to Australia in 1986 in pursuit of becoming a professor of geographic survey science at Curtin University. He now runs 30 cattle breeders on a 40ha property, 3km south of Serpentine with an aim to be a good steward of the industry. His recent purchase of a John Deere 6110M with remote control replacement utility tractor will be making easy work of ryegrass production fodder for the cattle. The challenge, now in its 11th year, has been WA’s biggest feedlot competition and this year’s event had 56 teams of cattle, with up to four steers allowed per team entry with the best of three making up each team’s total score. Each team’s total point score was derived by individual animal data for three performance categories including feedlot, processing and Meat and Standards grading with monetary values assigned to commercial industry standards. The Veenendaals first placed overall ranking team ranked 2nd in the feedlot category, 4th in processing and 40th in MSA eating quality and the team had an overall net profit value of $616.68. “We have our homework to do in MSA,” Mr Veenendaal said. Mr Howie, who entered a team of pure Angus Coonamble and Hay River blood steers, ranked first in feedlot performance, but swayed in processing with a rank of 47th, but was elevated in MSA with a 16th place ranking and the team profit was $618.67. “The challenge is a benchmark for our cattle against the other teams and how well they perform and process,” he said. “It was our best pure Angus team performance in our fourth year of entries.” Mr Howie, a fourth generation cattle producer runs 450 pure Angus breeders at his family’s property. The third-placed overall team from Millie Stone’s Albany-based Mountain Valley Livestock team of three Speckle Park cross Angus steers placed 3rd (feedlot), 31st (processing), and 18th (MSA). This was a great effort for Ms Stone’s first entry into the competition. She said her young adult children Bodhi and Shane Stone were running the cattle. The cattle team from WA College of Agriculture — Narrogin had the best processor performance (ranked first) with its entry of Blackrock blood pure Angus steers. The college’s cattle technical officer Ebony Hill said she hoped the success would help to re-establish the school’s Collegian Angus stud. The cattle team with the best MSA performance (ranked 1st) was awarded to Albany-based Shythot Unit Trust owners David and Sue Bickford for their team of three Angus cross Gelbvieh steers. Albany accountant David Bickford, who is a Gate 2 Plate Challenge committee member said he bought the team of calves from Youngs Siding cattle breeder Stephen Lonergan — “it’s a shared win”. 2025 GATE 2 PLATE CHALLENGE CHAMPIONS Overall winner: Evenson Farm Runner-up: Howie Grazing 3rd place: Mountain Valley Livestock 4th place: Hopeland Farm Views: 5th place: Oakridge Farm Best feedlot performance: Howie Grazing Best processor perfornane: WA College of Agriculture — Narrogin Best MSA performance: Shythot Unit Trust Best newcomer: Wallacup Farms Most improved cattle team: Alcoa Farmlands Highest performing school: WA College of Agriculture — Narrogin