A young Gingin Speckled Park bull is the first WA born example of the Speckled Park breed to be awarded Overall Grand Champion two years running at the Harvey Agricultural Show, plus win best Speckled Park exhibit at the Perth Royal show in between.
Just rising two, it’s clear Gingin Hulk has a successful career ahead and his owners, the Trainor family, couldn’t be happier.
Tony and Sally Trainor started their boutique stud in 2012 with imported Speckled Park embryos carried to term in surrogate Angus cows. Although they were surprised to hit success so early with Hulk, who is from their first drop, they are not surprised by the potential of the breed.
“They have an amazing ability to convert feed into meat,” says Tony. “They are high yeilding and the carcass can dress out up to 62.8% in comparison to the average 55- 56% of other breeds”.
Also in Gingin, Gary and Bloss Thomas formed stud Tungamah Speckled Park after being extremely impressed by the breed at the Sydney Royal Show in 2011. They are now joined as keen advocates of the breed by Kamara Speckle Park owned by the Howard family in Wannamal. Collectively they hope to see
the breed succeed and thrive statewide.
Speckle Park is a pure British breed and is a combination of Red Roan Shorthorn, Angus and White Park. They are highly fertile with moderate birth weights.
They are known as “easy doing” and it’s the impressive weight gains off both grass and grain that is really exciting for breeders. According to the NSW based breeders group Speckled Central they have a high marbling meat with an ideal fat covering that is now being sought by restaurants and chefs worldwide for its taste, tenderness and texture.
This month Tony is preparing to plant 40 embryos into 40 surrogate cows and is expecting a 50% success rate. It’s a tricky business and expensive to boot, but it’s worth it for Tony who is well on his way to his goal of breeding the best purebred Speckle Park cattle possible, with an emphasis on quality rather
than quantity.
