The Southern Grassfed Carcase Classic has been a major fundraiser for the Royal Flying Doctor Service since its inception but this year's donation eclipsed them all - a sky high $50,000.
One percent of the total value of the cattle in Australia's largest annual beef carcase competition is donated to the great cause.
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This year this amounted to $45,873 from the 1516 head from nearly 40 producers.The figure was rounded up to $50,000 with surplus dollars from the running of the event.
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Chairman Ben Glatz said the committee was proud to hand over their biggest ever cheque bringing the total raised in the event's history to $350,000.
"It is clear that a large proportion of our competition support is due to the flow-on benefits to the RFDS," he said.
"It was impressive to hear that our support matches the financial contribution of some of their large corporate partners."
RFDS Central Operations region fundraising manager Anthea Rice thanked all the entrants and said the monies raised were hugely valuable to the not for profit organisation.
It relies on fundraising and donations to meet the shortfall from the government in operating costs and also finance its capital raising program to replace aircraft and fit them out with life-saving medical equipment, she said.
"Any plane you see in the air has to come from fundraising, every bit of equipment has to come from fundraising," she said.
"To put it into context one of the wheels on the plane is around $80,000, one of the little baby's humidicribs they are around $50,000 -$55,000 each time we buy one of those and the Mansell unit (infant retrieval unit) in the jet is about $100,000.
"It all adds up- we couldn't possibly do it without you."
RFDS's Central Operations operates 21 aircraft, 19 Pilatus PC-12 planes and two PC-24 jets which attended more than 140 patients a day across SA and NT.
This includes landing twice daily in the Limestone Coast.
Mrs Rice said the many flights were evacuating patients in emergencies but also transferring patients to Adelaide for surgery or home again after treatment.
"You can imagine if you have had a hip replacement or heart bypass you are not going to want to sit in the back of a car or an ambulance for four or five hours," she said.
Mrs Rice said the new Patient Transfer Facility, situated in one of the hangars at the Mount Gambier Airport, , had been possible entirely from donations such as this.
"Someone was telling me it rains nearly every day in Mount Gambier and until the PTF we were having to transport our patients from the ambulance into the plane in the rain," she said.
