The Central Queensland Carcase Classic continues to shine a light on supporting local communities, raising an incredible $27,637.88 in donations for this years beneficiaries.
Since its inception in 2008, the CQCC has proudly raised more than $145,000 for many local community groups throughout the region.
Each year committee members select a number of beneficiaries to be involved in the competition, where they each receive a small percentage of vendors' proceeds, with competitors donating 2.5 per cent of their profits to the beneficiary of their choosing.
The seven local beneficiaries that received donations in this years competition included; Capricornia School of Distance Education, Clarke Creek State School P&C, Dingo State School P&C, Marlborough State School P&C, Ridgelands and District Sporting and Agricultural Association, ICPA Capricornia Branch of the Air, and Rockhampton Junior Beef Show.
Committee secretary Kristie Lisle said they usually select an additional group outside of the committee to change it up but this year they wanted to keep it local.
"We didn't add any new ones with how hard last year was for everybody, so we wanted to just give back to our main beneficiaries this year," she said.
"Last year we selected the Royal Flying Doctor Service and what usually happens when we add someone like that is most people put their money towards them, so they tend to get majority of the contributions.
"I was Impressed to see it more evenly distributed throughout the beneficiaries this year."
Ms Lisle said the donations received this year were a great deal more than previous years, which was expected considering the strong cattle market and growing level of interest in the competition.
"It's a really good initiative, everyone on the committee is just a volunteer so it's good to see that the time we put into it is going back to P&Cs, and just giving back to the community really."
The Rockhampton Junior Beef Show received a large proportion of this years donations, taking home $11,579.29 in contributions.
Australian Brahman Breeders' Association president and Junior Beef Show representative, Wendy Cole said it was the most money they had ever received and a big surprise.
"That's a lot of money, we're very appreciative of the donors who added us as their beneficiary," she said.
"I think it's amazing that people give back to the communities that support them, and the communities are very appreciative of this opportunity.
"The funds will certainly be put into programs to educate the young generation coming on, which is what needs all the support, and they are the ones we need to train."
Ms Cole said the show has supported more than 100 kids through agricultural education and the donation would go a long way towards widening the scope of educators they can access in future.
"We get different trainers in to educate the kids and this will give us the opportunity to outreach more for our educational programs," she said.
"In the past we've had dog trainers, agriculture technology specialists and even cooking demonstrations where kids also learn the different cuts of beef.
"Kids travel from as far as New South Wales, southern Queensland, all the way up to Innisfail in North Queensland so we have a good variety who attend."
CQCC committee member and ICPA Branch of the Air representative Trudy Mace was also chuffed with the $6000.96 in contributions her group received.
"Because I am a member of ICPA and have been since my children started their distance education we were able to get ICPA on as a beneficiary," she said.
"As a Branch of the Air we live all over the state, so face to face we don't actually see each other very often at all. For us to be able to receive funds in this way is a really great and easy way for us to fundraise.
"What it will mean is that we can support kids to go to ICPA sports camp, which is a wonderful event for rural kids where they get exposed to eight different sports over the course of a week. We're just looking at different things within our branch that we can do for kids going forward as well."
Ms Mace said the Branch of the Air was always using funds to send delegates to both state and federal conference in order to lobby for equity in education for rural and remote kids.
"We're looking at other ways to continue to investigate and engage in activities to provide the necessary opportunities to further support the kids living in geographically isolated locations across central Queensland," she said.
"We're grateful for the contribution we've received and It's important to recognise that the competitors [in the carcase classic] choose to donate to us and with that we must use these funds with good governance always in mind."