Speckles off grass

Speckles perform well off grass in Lardner Park steer trial

By Kim Woods

Speckle Park producers are encouraged to enter cattle to gain valuable carcase feedback and quantify the breed’s superiority off grass in the nation’s only grassfed steer trial.

The Victorian based Lardner Park steer trial was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19 but went ahead in 2021 and with interest sought for the 2022 trial. Entries arrived on June 29, and weighed on July 6, August 10, September 14, October 19 and November 29 before being processed by JBS Australia on behalf of Coles. A carcase demonstration and awards day will be held on February 1, 2022.

At the second weigh-in, data was captured by a TWR-5 Weigh Scale, data collector and EID tag reader on condition score and health treatments, including batch, expiry and withholding period.

Each steer carries a Ceres ear tag which uses GPS tracking for activity monitoring and real-time alerts. The 86 head weighed 256-464kg or an average of 259kg and an average daily weight gain of 1.06kg at the August 10 weigh.

In September, the steers weighed an average 390kg and had an average liveweight gain of 1.09kg. In October the steers weighed an average of 435kg with an average daily gain of 1.28kg.

The data collected will be used by Monash University, Meat and Livestock Australia and JBS Australia to showcase breed benchmarks. Speckle Park infused entries this year are from Bruce Williams, Hollingrove stud, Warragul, Vic, and Andrew Nicholl, Langmore Farm, Fish Creek, Vic.

At the second weigh, the Hollingrove Speckle Park/Angus cross steers weighed 339 and 355kg and after the second weigh had an average daily gain of 0.83 and 0.86kg respectively. The Langmore Farm Speckle Park/ Speckle Park/Angus entries weighed 379kg and 328kg.

At the third weigh in September, the Hollingrove steers weighed 398 and 405 with an average daily gain of 0.86 and 0.50kg respectively. Their overall daily gain was 0.84 and 0.71kg. The Langmore Farm steers weighed 411kg and 348kg.

At the fourth weigh in October, the Hollingrove steers weighed 446 and 450kg with average daily gains of 1.37 and 1.29kg. The Langmore Farm steers weighed 431kg and 383kg with an overall daily gain of 0.78 and 0.79kg respectively. A third Langmore Speckle Park/Speckle Park/Angus steer was 463kg with an average daily gain of 1.34kg and overall daily gain of 1.21kg. These Speckle Park/Angus steers enjoyed excellent spring pastures in Gippsland for the 2021 Lardner Park Trial. Photo Anthony Willems

In 2017, Hollingrove won the highest carcase score as a pair with two Speckle Park/Angus cross steers.

As a breed, Bruce Williams believes Speckle Park need to focus on its grass finishing ability and encouraged more producers to enter the trial to quantify the breed’s traits. Bruce and his wife Debbie were early adopters of Speckle Park after reading about their calving ease and have since been impressed by their docility.

After more than 12 years of breeding, they have a small registered herd of purebreds and use Speckle Park bulls over commercial Angus, Angus/Friesian and Speckle Park cross females. The cattle dovetail with a Warmblood horse stud.

The steers are sold at 350kg liveweight to backgrounders supplying Greenhams, the heifer weaners are sold to restockers and purebred bulls to local dairy farmers to value add their dairy cross calves. Bruce has used natural fertilisers and trace elements on his pastures and believes the quality of the steers has improved.

‘If you have good pasture, good cattle and look after them, that is half the battle,” he said.

“It’s all about an easy life and enjoying the cattle for us – we like to support Lardner Park, they are great people.

“We have a Johner Stock Farm Trade Secret son and his calves will enter the trial next year.”

Compliant with the Coles QA grass fed program, the aim is to achieve the best outcomes during trial information and data collection, and purchase price on carcase meat when the trial is turned off. Steers must dress at a domestic grade with a specification of between 220-310kg HSCW and a P8 fat depth of 8-14mm.

The trial is open to both purebred and crossbred Speckle Park steers, with entrants required to declare entered steers have not been grain fed since birth. The cattle are managed under independently controlled grazing conditions during the trial in the Gippsland region.