Denngal Santa Gertrudis has been awarded the Premier Beef Breeder’s award at a Sydney Royal Show that’s given the Moxey family plenty to celebrate.

With three generations involved, honours for their herd and the arena buzzing with excitement about the breed, Dennis Moxey described the event as “a real topper.”

Being acknowledged as Premier Beef Breeder in the interbreed awards was a stand-out recognition.

“It was a real honour to get that, I’ve never been up there before and got those sorts of awards,” Dennis said.

The Moxeys have been taking their Santa Gertrudis cattle from their property on the fertile river country of Jemalong to the Sydney Show since 1990.

Making it all the more special is the fact the enterprise now spans three generations with Dennis and Gail, their son, daughter and grandchildren all involved both in the business and the Sydney Royal trip.

They were in the spotlight when eight Denngal animals had to go into the ring for the sire’s progeny class and the entire family was on hand to do that.

“I didn’t even have to lead so that’s how many of us were there,” Dennis said.

“Our son and daughter, grandson and granddaughters were out there, leading all day, presenting and doing well.

“We love to teach the kids, we go to a Santa Gertrudis youth camp each year and they learn a lot from that – it’s really good.”

Denngal wasn’t the biggest exhibitor but they did win some particularly pleasing prizes – and their consistency added up to see them awarded Most Successful Santa Gertrudis exhibitor, another honour.

Their youngest entries – Denngal Upward and Denngal Kate – were named the best male and female calf of their breed, they were also a hit with the public and even featured with the 2025 Young Woman on the front page of The Land.

In another notable success their bulls took out both first and second in the Santa Gertrudis bull under 24 months class.

“We had two bulls at home here, I usually only take one for each class and we couldn’t decide,” Dennis said.

“They were both over 900kg and they measured up with their eye muscle very well, over 140 (in Sydney).”

This size and quality are two aspects of what Dennis loves about Santa Gertrudis as a breed.

Moxeys haven’t looked back from their choice of the Santa Gertrudis breed as one that would suit their business.

“When you start to pick out the finer points they’re a wonderful breed as far as temperament, the style of them, their growth rates and the amount of weight they put on,” Dennis said.

Dennis has been the breed captain for about 18 years now and was this year heavily involved in organisation of the breed as the feature of the cattle show.

All eyes were on the Santa Gertrudis – their display a crowd pleaser as well as a winner with the judges.

“It certainly was a big job getting it ready but it was such a pleasure when it all came off and worked so well, and really great promotion for Santa Gertrudis,” Dennis said.

It also meant increased competition with some three times the usual entries in the stud cattle.

“It was a lot of competition and very tough competition – there were some top studs there competing that we haven’t seen for a while and they were very good,” Dennis said.

One part of being the feature breed was working with the Australian Baking Association to produce the Hot Santa Pie especially for the show.

Using 400kg of beef from Nolan Meats, Queensland, the pies on offer to the public sold out and they were very much enjoyed by the breed association at their function.