Speckle Park gearing up for first sale

Dimity Comb of Speckle Park will offer 30 bulls, 30 females, recipient cows and embryo packages at the stud’s inaugural sale in March. Image: Kimberly Grabham.

Something small has expanded out of sight for the Comb family. The Comb family had already been a well-established sheep farming enterprise, showcasing commercial Merinos and a White Suffolk Stud.

In 2017 they established Keiross Speckle Park. The cattle’s speckle colour caught Doug Comb’s attention. A butcher prior to farming, he was then drawn in further by the meat quality and yielding of Speckle Park cattle, their doing ability and conversion of feed to growth rate.

Speckle Park Cattle are a pure breed of cattle which originated in Canada. The virtues of this bred are numerous, including easy calving and low birth weights. They are highly fertile with magnificent udders and high milk flow, and are a breed renowned for their fault-free structures. They are docile, quiet, tractable and kind natured, and display impressive weight gains off both grass and grain. Their meat is high marbling yet perfect fat covering, off grass or grain. Speckle Park are known to produce incredible yielding carcasses, impressive quality fine tender meat. They are hardy and tough, suited for harsh Australian climates, and showcase dark pigmented skin.

Speckle Park cattle have four distinct colour patterns; speckled, leopard, white and solid black. Speckle and leopard colour patterns are genetically the same, apart from varying grades of spotting. Some Speckle Park cattle can yield red colour patterns if both parentages possess the recessive red gene. Keiross Speckle Park now showcases over 70 2021 drop cattle, who are hand-fed hay and grain, as opposed to the natural pasture at Keiross, as a result of being moved to Hay when the flooding took place.

The Combs were lucky enough to have some land on the edge of town, ‘Manfred,’ where they could transport their cattle when the recent flooding became an immense concern at ‘Keiross.’ They transported the cattle in, and they are as happy and placid as ever, there. Their various undertakings are cutting edge, impressive, and varied.

“We use extensive technologies such as artificial insemination and embryo transfer to get the best quality genetics on the ground,” Dimity said. “All our purebred calves require DNA testing, parent verification and registering.

“We purchase semen and embryos from different parts of the country and some from overseas, and need to track and verify where it is all going.

“We now calf down over 100 purebred Speckle Park each year, and have previously sold at multi-vendor sales.

“However, we have decided to have our own sale in 2023, as we have grown to the point where we have too many to make multi-vendor sales viable for our farm.

“We will offer over 30 bulls, 30 females (most pregnancy tested and in calf), recipient cows and embryo packages.”

Agriculture has always been an immense passion for Dimity, with her being a hands-on fixture at the farm, alongside her late father Doug, for the majority of her life. Her brother James shares her passion, and has also worked on the farm for some time. Her younger sister Jacqui is also happy to get in and help when needed.

When asked why Speckle Park Cattle, Dimity is quick to answer, and seeing her with the cattle, her fondness is evident.

“We love their nature,” Dimity said.

“Working with quiet cattle makes working with them so enjoyable, especially when every now and then one enjoys a scratch and a pat.

“They are a good cross breeding choice for hybrid vigour across other cattle breeds.”

The first annual Keiross Speckle Park sale will take place at Hay Cattle Yards, Saturday March 4, at 1pm.