Speckle Park International magazine - 2022 edition
Value adding
Clean and green Speckles from the Northern Rivers By Kim Woods
Cubs Speckle Park have value added to their F1 calves
Two Speckle Park herds in the NSW Northern Rivers have value added to their steers through their local butchery with consumers consistently demanding more. Commercial producers John and Jenny McKavanagh, Kogyle, have been turning off Speckle Park cross steers at 420kg liveweight and 200kg carcase weight with 10mm plus fat to their local butcher for several years. “It walked out the door - they couldn’t keep up with the demand from customers and we couldn’t supply him enough,” Jenny said. “Customers loved the eating qualities of the whole high yielding carcase.” The couple produce an ethically raised, HGP and antibiotic free animal, using dusting bags to prevent buffalo flies and feeding garlic tops to help with worming. They began their journey with Speckle Parks in 2010, buying a bull from the nation’s first sale at Six Star after seeing the carcase attributes of the breed at the Calgary Stampede. They had been using Greyman and Brahman females in their 1200mm plus rainfall area at Kyogle. The beef herd dovetailed with a busy macadamia and garlic enterprise and until recently, market gardening. “The environment is sub-tropical and we need a hardy breeder – we started using the Speckle Park bulls over Brahman cows, retaining some crossbred heifers and culling the older cows,” John said.
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After a decade of using Speckle Park bulls, the breeding herd now comprises F4, F3 and F2 females. The couple has found a demand for their surplus sub-tropically adapted Speckle Park infused females in the online market to buyers as far north as Yepoon, Qld. “In the early days we donated an F1 calf each to the regional schools for carcase competitions to get the carcase feedback,” Jenny said. “We noticed the difference in the temperament of the herd straight away, and added growth and carcase traits,” she said. A third in the Casino Beef Week with an F1 carcase encouraged them to concentrate on pursuing markets for their weaner steers in the Casino store markets. “It took the buyers a while to come around to the Speckle Parks – we had to educate them to their attributes but there are a lot of breeders in the area now,” Jenny said. They were already customers of Stuart Bros Butchery at Kyogle and approached proprietor Brett Stuart to retail their Speckle Park cross beef. John and Jenny use barley sprouts as a fattening agent for their trade steers and protein source for the cows during dry seasons. “We have a fodder feed unit which produces 10 tonnes of feed to every one tonne of barley seed in five days,” Jenny said.
