Charolais ‘Brothers in Farms’ team – Angus, Charlie and Donald Maclean – were crowned beef champions and awarded overall best promotional stand at the National Young Stars competition at the Three Counties Showground, Malvern.

The event features seven different disciplines which include dressing a display area for which competitors must prepare materials in advance and this year the organisers introduced a theme for each section.

The beef teams were asked to demonstrate why beef is more than just a Sunday roast and to promote their breed to the wider beef industry and convince the general public why beef cattle are a vital part of the British countryside.

The boys came up with a comprehensive range of display materials featuring recipe leaflet, a video and a poster campaign to demonstrate how the quick finishing Charolais makes less of an impact on the environment as it is more efficient and more sustainable for the future.

On arrival, they first had to settle their cattle then assemble the display which also featured a guess the weight competition, lots of giveaways and information about themselves and their cattle.

The oldest of the brothers at 22, Angus Maclean, works as a stock manager for a pedigree herd in Gilford and his duties include embryo transfer work, semen collection and preparing animals for export.

Second brother Charlie, is 21 who is an agricultural apprentice at Stamford Park Farm in Oxford, attends Sparsholt college on a day release basis.

Youngest brother, 18-year-old Donald studied engineering and is now starting his second-year apprenticeship as a welder/fabricator with an agricultural engineering company local to the family home in Eastleigh, Hampshire.

All three brothers have been brought up with Charolais cattle as father Charlie, manages the Mortimers herd and kindly provided the cattle for the competition – Mortimers Lambada and Lovely.

After setting up their stalls there was a stockjudging competition, and a questionnaire to complete for the Skill-a-thon with reasons.

Next morning, teams had to prepare cattle – washing and clipping – for the show ring. Donald and Charlie led the cattle and Angus was called upon to answer questions on the breed and beef industry in general.

Brothers in Farms Charolais team was announced overall beef champions with a total score of 866.5 out of 1000. Beef section runners-up was Team Canada with the Super Simmies and Limousin Leaders placed third and fourth respectively.