Speckles are spot on for Phillip’s stud

STUD cattle breeder Phillip Wright reckons Australian Speckle Park cattle genetics have overtaken the original stock from Canada.

The spotty Speckle Park cattle dotted around the paddocks at his Stellar Stud near Cygnet are the result of embryo transfer in an effort to get the best possible genetics.

Mr Wright said improving genetics was Stellar Speckle Park stud’s main aim.

“I want our genetics to be in the top 5 per cent that you can get anywhere in Australia,” Mr Wright said.

“What we produce is a bull with elite genetics, packaged with good temperament and good structure.”

Mr Wright said he believed the Speckle Park breed has an important  good role in the Australian cattle industry.

“I think we’ve lost the vigour we approach hybrid breeds with,” he said.

“We’re going all in with purelines, but crossbreeding still has a really important role to play.

“I think Speckle Parks make a fabulous crossbreeding animal.

“They do well in hardened environments.

“We were thinking what we could do that might be a bit different, and we thought speckles were almost the ideal beef breed to be Tasmanian grass-fed – particularly when trying to crossbreed.

“Two summers ago when it was super dry the speckles, compared to other breeds, did well and had really good feed efficiency.”

Mr Wright said Speckle Park cattle had good meat quality.

“It has low-fat melting points and high tenderness and marbling,” he said.

“You also get the meat much faster than normal because they are quite an early maturing breed.”

Mr Wright said he had loved cattle from a young age.

“I remember when I was six or seven I would sit down and watch the cattle,” he said. “I’d happily sit there for hours.”

Originally from NSW, he got an agricultural science degree and ran a share farm with his brother.

“Our daughter, Jess, came down to Tasmania to do a violin degree, and my wife Therese and I came down to visit a few times,” Mr Wright said.

“It’s very nice country down here – it actually rains reliably.

“We were fortunate this place came up.”

The Wrights bought the 65ha  farm in 2018.

They decided to run a stud instead of a commercial beef herd because Mr Wright thought the size of the land was not big enough to support beef production.

He said he believes that there are fewer than 10 Speckle Park studs in Tasmania.

With about 45 cows, he reckons his stud would be one of the medium-sized ones in the state.

Most of their cattle were sold at bull sales.

“To date, most of our customers have been from the South,” he said.

“One of the challenges we have is how we can service the North as well.”

Through its breeding program, Mr Wright said, Stellar Speckle Park Stud aims to achieve calving ease in its young cattle.

“We put more emphasis on the gestation length than the calving weight,” Mr Wright said. “But at the same time we are trying to get a balanced animal.”

Mr Wright said a cow’s temperament was also important.

“We’ve had a fabulous bull by the numbers, but a bad temperament, and we’ve had to cull them.

“A client wants a bull that is easy to manage.”

“I’d like to increase the size, so we may look at leasing or other options to get more land.”