Milky ​Way Speckle Parks

 
Breed Attributes

Speckle Parks are a British Breed, Polled and originating from Canada. They are moderate sized, early maturing and structurally sound cattle with strong maternal instincts and a quiet disposition.   Mature cows range in weight from 600 kgs to 850 kgs and mature bulls 1000 kgs +.  Calves average 30 to 40kgs at birth while average weights at weaning are around 220kg- 350kgs. The breed are highly fertile cattle with cows known for good teat structure and udders. Bulls become sexually mature from around 12 months of age while heifers cycle early once reaching puberty.   Newborn calves are vigourous causing little calving issues and their lower birth weight results in cows calving easily.  Calving problems are therefore rare, even in maiden heifers.  The breed are high feed converters who are healthy and robust as well as known for their hardiness, having adapted through the extreme Canadian climatic conditions. They cope well with both hot 40+ C summer days down to sub zero winters.  
 
Colours

Speckle Park cattle come in a variety of color patterns. They are predominantly black with white top line and underline, with speckled hips and/or shoulders and with a black or black roan face. The second color pattern is the leopard pattern. It is similar to the speckled pattern but there are definite black spots on the animal instead of just speckles. The white animals with some black hair on the body are considered 'leopards'. The third color pattern is the 'white' pattern. The white animals have white hair on the body and face but have black points. i.e. eyes, ears, nose, and hooves. The fourth is solid black.  These colours are registerable, though blacks are not permitted to be shown. Red or roan speckled cattle are not registerable. This ruling was made during breed establishment by the Canadian Breed Society and also applies in Australia.
 
Carcass Traits

Speckle Park have superior quality carcasses with very high marbling plus yield, even on grass.  Worldwide their meat now has a reputation for it's consistent and exceptional eating quality, taste and tenderness.  The breed plus Speckle Park crosses have established this reputation primarily by means of their consistently outstanding performance in carcass competitions and steer tests at the Calgary Stampede, in Canada and is now being repeated in Australia .  Speckle Parks have achieved a  AAA carcass rating but without the thick layer of outer fat.  Their marbling ability & feed efficiency makes them ideal for producing easy finishing steers whether that be grassfed on pastures or in feed lots. Bulls increasingly are being used over other breeds to add hybrid vigour to their herds and produce premium
animals for the restaurant and beef markets.