With the Speckle Park breed promptly making a name for itself within the Australian beef industry, one of the state’s earliest adopters of the breed, Wayne Hayward, is convinced the eye-appealing black and white cattle will deliver premiums for years to come.
The Hayward family have been in the Lameroo area for more than a century, breeding Angus cattle for as long as they can remember.
But things are starting to change, with Mr Hayward, his wife Marilyn and sons Daridyn and Aaron beginning to infuse Speckle Park genetics into their 130-head commercial Angus cattle enterprise in the past four years.
“My stock agent mentioned Speckle Parks to me when I asked what different breeds would run well in the same environment,” Mr Hayward said.
Having not heard much about the breed before, Mr Hayward was intrigued and, after a considerable amount of researching, decided he would go a step further and bought a three-year-old Speckle Park bull from John Ellis’s Hanging Rock Speckle Park stud, Newham, Vic.
That move proved successful and Mr Hayward has gone on to buy an additional two Speckle Park stud sires.
Originating in Saskatchewan, Canada, Speckle Parks are a combination of three breeds of British cattle – Angus, British White, and Teeswater Shorthorn – and boast fertility and superior carcase traits.
“The Speckle Park’s ability to marble is superior to all other British breeds,” Mr Hayward said.
“It has also been reported that a Speckle Park can yield up to 70 per cent.”
With his first F1 females recently calving, Mr Hayward said calving ease and fantastic temperament were added benefits.
As done traditionally with their Angus weaners, the Hayward F1 weaners were sent to the Naracoorte store sales to be sold. The market acceptance of the cattle appeared positive, with favourable prices achieved at the July store sale.
All black in colour, the steers averaged 370 kilograms and topped the sale at $3.19/kg, or $1180, while the heifers made $2.97/kg and averaged 330kg.
The next line of weaners were sent to the August store sale. The draft were all speckled in colouring and markings and while the prices received were significantly less than the previous month, the Haywards’ stock agent Daryl Napper, Elders Bordertown, said the decrease in price was strictly a reflection of the present market rather than the cattle.
Mr Napper is looking forward to watching the program evolve in the next couple of years.
“Buyers are still learning about the breed and it will take a couple more years of proving themselves to really take off,” he said.
Eye-catching hides lift potential profits
IN addition to offering cattle through the Naracoorte saleyards, the Hayward family, Lameroo, also sell stock to Hanging Rock Speckle Park stud, Newham, Vic, where the animals are grown out to two years of age.
The highly sought-after beef is then sold through Hanging Rock Winery, which is connected to the stud.
But the value-adding does not stop there – the hides are then tanned and sold for upwards of $1000 each.
“The hides are as popular as the beef,” Wayne Hayward said.
In a further attempt to expand marketing and breed recognition channels, Mr Hayward has connected with a few Riverland butcher shops, sending a handful of yearling animals to them in the past couple of years.
Mr Hayward is planning to supplement the next round of steers on lucerne until 18 to 24 months of age to achieve more marbling.
“Like any other breed, 12 months is a bit too early to really start laying down the adequate fat cover that is required,” he said.
With an end goal of further increasing marbling, Mr Hayward has his sights firmly set on a F5, or pure, Speckle Park herd in the future.
