Steak from a central Queensland cattle farm has been voted the best in the world, beating 470 entries from 30 countries.

The Senku Pure Wagyu fillet, produced by Brisbane-based Paradigm Foods, was crowned World’s Best Steak 2026 at the World Steak Challenge in Amsterdam this month.

It was the first time the Brisbane-founded and owned beef brand entered the competition, which is in its 11th year.

The cattle that produced the steak were bred by fourth-generation central Queensland graziers Adam and Hayley Rea and finished on Sapphire Feedlot at a “bespoke, purpose-built grain program”.

“To have an animal we raised on our own country end up on the best tables in the world and now be named the best steak in the world, full stop, on the very first attempt, is beyond anything I set out to achieve,” Rea said.

“This is a win for central Queensland as much as it is for us.”

Sapphire Feedlot’s Andrew Shearer-Smith said the team was “still getting our heads around” the win.

“There are no shortcuts to marbling like this,” Shearer-Smith said.

“Finishing cattle to this level takes time, patience and a program built specifically around the animal, not a generic ration.”

Each steak was judged by 60 industry leaders in a blind test against “raw and cooked criteria” to determine the winner.

Paradigm Foods general manager Nick Thompson said the win was the “result of decades of breeding work by graziers across Central Queensland who don’t get the recognition they deserve.”

“This is not luck,” he said.

“[It shows] what Australian producers are capable of.

“I hope every producer in central Queensland feels some ownership of this result, because it belongs to them as much as it does to us.”

Last year, the title was taken by Lidl and Dawn Meats in Ireland.

Those wanting to try the 2026 winning beef can do so at Fatcow on James Street in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane.

Republished from InQueensland