Sires

Justin purchased Manitoba when he visited the Trainor family’s property in Western Australia in 2017. He loved him then, and we love the grunty sire he has grown out to become. His first calves here were born in 2019 and they’re outstanding – moderate birthweights with explosive early growth.

Manitoba has exceptional feet and moves fluently despite his thick build. To top it off, he has an impeccable temperament, and excellent scrotal. Manitoba epitomises the beef bull we believe every southern Australia beef herd should be striving for. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency! He is the best-doing bull we’ve ever owned, and has no waste in his carcase – a power of meat and softness. 

Manitoba has been DNA parent-verified (645852), is homozygous polled (PcPc), homozygous dominant black for coat colour (RGF), and myostatin non-carrier (NC).

We first saw JSF Unmarked 2D in late-2016, as a calf on his dam, Jencrest Yavonna 6Y (SSU 6Y). We have since imported embryos out of his dam, 6Y, and loved the calves she has produced. We saw Unmarked again in Canada in 2017 and have watched him take both the showring by storm and produce ball-tearing calves that bear his stamp. Unmarked’s 2019-drop ET-bred calves here are simply outstanding, and we have more cooking for 2020. 

We have seen Ravenworth Invictus 103C on two trips to Canada now and have thought so much of him that we imported both semen and embryos by him. We feel privileged to be selected by the Berting family of Ravenworth Cattle Speckle Park, Canada, as the very first people in the world to purchase Ravenworth embryos, and for that we are very grateful. Those first calves were born in 2019 and we have more coming in 2020. 

Invictus is the ultimate heifer bull, producing calves with moderate birthweights and plenty of early growth. He is a sire we think a lot of – thick, deep, super stylish, and moderate, yet his calves are growing just as fast as those born with more grunt.

We have invested more in Maungahina Kidmans Cove than any other Speckle Park sire – and we think a LOT of this bull. Kidmans Cove was bred by the McKenzie family of Maungahina Stud – a family we have come to grow immense respect for as cattlemen, and a great friendship as well. Cove has been a very highly used bull across both the beef and dairy industries in New Zealand and Australia. He has inherited the carcase and marbling traits of his sire, Falcon (highest IMF bull of any breed in NZ in his year). Two yearling Cove heifers made a record price of $27,000 and $25,000 at the 2018 Maungahina sale. 

We have imported 1700 straws of semen from this sire, as well as embryos, and we believe this bull epitomises what is great about Speckle Park as a beef breed. Kidmans Cove measured an IMF of 8% off grass at just 18 months old. This raw data and linkages have translated to him being in the top 1% of the breed for IMF, as well as top 5% for rib and rump fats (December 2021 Group Breedplan). He is below breed average for birthweight and breeds great scrotal into his calves. We LOVE Cove and his calves. We will be using him for many years to come. With a pedigree like Cove’s, there is little wonder he has become such a success.

Mark McKenzie of the highly-acclaimed Maungahina Speckle Park Stud, New Zealand, believes Maungahina Legacy is the best bull they have bred in 12 years of breeding Speckle Park. Justin saw him as a young bull in 2017 and again in 2018, and was equally impressed by his overall correctness and movement, despite being larger-framed. In the July 2020 Group Breedplan analysis, Legacy was in the top 1% of the breed for 200-, 400-, and 600-day weights, Top Value for Retail Beef Yield, top 5% for Eye Muscle Area (EMA) and also top 20% for Scrotal Size. 

We were proud and grateful to be among a small group of Australians selected by Mark to be the first to receive Legacy semen. This has resulted in an awesome collection of 2019-drop Legacy calves here at JAD, and we have 43 Legacy progeny due in 2020. Joined correctly, the Speckle Park breed will benefit greatly from this outstanding sire. 

We have produced Eldorado progeny here in 2018, 2019, and will have more coming in 2020. His females are very well-made with stylish profiles, great softness and thickness, and they are very quiet. The Eldorado sons have great mascularity, and an early maturity pattern – they are terrific carcase bulls. Eldorado had an IMF of 6.5 and has been a hugely successful sire in the breed, both in his home country of New Zealand and here in Australia. 

JAD The Marshall T87 (JAD T87) is arguably the most complete sire we have bred to date. The Marshall weighed in at 917kg at 26 months old, off grass only, after being used as a yearling. His first progeny were born in Spring 2024. They are consistently the most impressive calves in each mob. 

The Marshall shares maternal genetics with our other star sire, JAD Quistacat Q48. Quistacat’s dam, JSF Paddy 34D, is The Marshall’s maternal granddam. We sold The Marshall’s dam, JAD 24E Paddy Q38, at our 2021 JAD Sale for $22,000, and later purchased her back in January 2024. We flushed Q38 to Promise prior to selling her, resulting in four progeny – one was the top-priced female of our 2023 JAD Sale, one was flown to Dubai after being selected by a representative of Sheikh Mohammad, one female was retained in-herd, and the other was The Marshall. Quite the success rate! 

We are excited for what The Marshall will bring to the Speckle Park breed!

WATCH VIDEO OF THE MARSHALL, AT 26 MONTHS OLD 

Tombstone is the result of an elite embryo purchased from the heart of the McKenzie family’s Maungahina Stud in New Zealand. He packs a punch on pedigree and performance, being in the top 5% of the breed for 200-day, 400-day and 600-day weight EBVs (estimated breeding values), top 1% for Scrotal Size, top 5% for Carcase Weight, and top 10% of the breed for Retail Beef Yield (RBY). He is in the top 10% of the breed for the Domestic Terminal Index, and top 5% for the Export Termindal Index.

Tombstone achieved the third highest selection index value (out of 25 bulls) in our meat research through the University of Newcastle in 2023. This measured intra muscular fat (IMF), fat melting point (FMP), Oleic acid, ALA, DPA, EPA+DHA+DPA and Ʃ Omega-3. Recent research with beef (1Otto et al. 2022) and lamb (2Otto et al. 2023) indicate that meat consumers demand healthier, safer, and more consistent beef of high eating quality. Intramuscular fat content (IMF), fat melting point (FMP), and omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (≥C20 n-3 LC-PUFA) composition are associated with consumer satisfaction and key eating quality attributes because of their associations with taste, smell, texture, tenderness, flavour, and juiciness (3Garmyn 2020; 4Mwangi et al., 2022).

Currently, the Australian and global beef industry, supported by research bodies, has shifted its attention to finding ways of producing meat of consistent eating quality and health-promoting ≥C20 n-3 LC-PUFA that play essential roles in human disease prevention (5Patel et al., 2022; 6Malau-Aduli et al., 2022). The essential omega-3 fatty acids of interest include alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) which are generally low in beef and lamb compared to fish (7Calder 2014; 8Pewan et al., 2021). However, meat also contains saturated fatty acids (SFA) such as palmitic, myristic, and lauric acids, which are the main contributors to blood plasma cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins (LDL); two key concerns for beef consumers (9Wood et al., 2008).

The aim of genetic selection is to give preference to high-performing individuals in the herd to be parents of the next generation so that heritable gains in improvement can be passed on. Early selection decisions based on actual laboratory tested meat quality traits while the animals are young provides better precision and accuracy than values estimated from herd averages after slaughter.

WATCH VIDEO OF TOMBSTONE, AT 26 MONTHS OLD

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The Ducherer family of River Hill Farm are known for their quality females and they produced a great female-maker in Line Drive. We loved his females when we saw him and his daughters on our 2016 visit to Canada. Line Drive was Grand Champion Bull at Farmfair and the Lloydminster Stockade, and placed Reserve Champion Bull at Agribition in 2012 and 2013.

Line Drive sired the top-priced bull AND female at our inaugural JAD Speckle Park Bull + Female Sale in March, 2019. He produced a cracking daughter as part of our 2018-drop, and we will have more Line Drive progeny as part of our 2020-drop. Line Drive has certainly bred exceptionally well here for us and we are looking forward to seeing what his JAD progeny produce in the years to come. 

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