Breeding Philosophy

Combining a female focus with objective measurement

 

Scrap that. Yes, the above is true. BUT why? Everything we do is about PROFIT.

Optimising cow size, selecting to maximise return per hectare, and ultimately MAXIMISING PROFIT! Not enough seedstock producers in any industry focus enough on what it’s all about. We are young start-up farm business owners with a thirst for knowledge, technology, being the best at what we do, and ultimately generating as much profit as possible to meet the obligations and goals of our clients and ourselves. The opportunity to play a role in the success of our clients’ businesses both humbles us and excites the hell out of us! We have a commercial focus, and your satisfaction in doing business with us is of utmost importance to us.

It is indisputable that in recent decades, the Australian beef industry – across all breeds – has had a thirst to increase production per animal. We ask the question: does increasing production per animal necessarily increase profit per hectare? We would argue that a significant proportion of today’s beef businesses have tipped the scale of efficiency the wrong way. If there is any truth in the theory that an animal eats a percentage of its bodyweight – increasing and decreasing throughout the reproductive cycle – surely we need to focus our attention on maximising the percentage of calf weaning weight to mature cow weight. We look forward to exploring this further ourselves and sharing those experiences with our clients along the way.

Our role as seedstock cattle producers is to meet demands of the consumer – the same consumer that is your target customer too: the person who chooses to put beef on their fork, whether that be at a restaurant or in their homes. We want to attract them to beef from other protein sources, and we want to impress them so much that they want more!

We have chosen to breed seedstock and commercial Speckle Park because, since 2012, this cattle breed has excited us so much in its ability to meet this primary goal. We come from a commercial background and we combine our commercial focus at the production end, with a determination to produce the best beef we possibly can for our consumers. Efficiently, effectively, and profitably.

Our core priority is to constantly improve the quality of our cow herd to feature cows that are highly efficient in their role, with longevity and a low maintenance requirement. They must be structurally sound, of good temperament, and produce early maturing calves that get up and grow like weeds! Our focus is on the cow herd because although we’re in the business of selling bulls, we know that bulls are a by-product of the cow herd.

 

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” ~ Albert Einstein ~

We are passionate about our cattle and hold a strong vision for what we want our herd to look like. Objective measurement via BREEDPLAN (what is BREEDPLAN?) is a key tool in our genetic management, as is our commitment to DNA testing – well beyond what are now considered standard tests. Structural assessment will always come first (second, third and last) but we want as many tools in the toolbox as we can utilise to help improve our decision making and outcomes. We aim for a balanced set of objectively measured traits, and work to gradually optimise growth and carcase traits – not in quantum leaps. We utilise technologies such as embryo transfer (ET), artificial insemination (AI), genomic analysis and objective measurements (BREEDPLAN/EBVs) to fast-track genetic gain in each generation of JAD Speckle Park cattle, and thus passing on that gain for dispersion through our clients’ herds.

We have established our foundation cow herd from large embryo transfer programs, containing embryos imported directly from Canada – where the breed originates – together with embryos from New Zealand and increasingly now our own embryos. We have scoured leading Speckle Park stud herds in Canada and New Zealand to access the very best the breed has to offer. We have been to both countries multiple times on research missions to “eye ball” donor dams, sires, progeny, and families of cattle.

The bulls we send out into the commercial industry will have predictability that comes with being objectively measured from birth, they will be a product of our female-focused breeding vision, and they will carry all of the growth, maternal and carcase attributes inherent in the Speckle Park breed. They will be functional cattle and will be backed by us to go out and do a good job in clients’ herds. We put in the hard work to give our clients the confidence to back us and our cattle.

 

What do we measure?

 

“Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change.” ~ Jim Rohn ~