– JOEL SALATIN
“If our farms are not fun, not profitable, or are too much work, our children will not want them. Romancing the next generation, is the ultimate test of sustainability”
IT’S DIFFICULT to believe we’re gearing up for our fifth JAD Speckle Park Bull + Female Sale! Time certainly flies when you’re having fun! As promised, we have made huge gains over the past 12 months to both expand our herd and invest in research and development for the breed.
We will produce more than 600 stud calves in 2023, with every one to be raised under commercial conditions in large contemporary groups, performance-recorded from birth, independently assessed and scrutinised before we determine whether it is “good enough” to be catalogued in a JAD Sale. Through numbers, we look forward to much greater opportunity to assess what is and isn’t working, and the cream will have to fight its way to the top.
Our fifth JAD Speckle Park Bull + Female Sale is just around the corner, set down for Friday, March 31. We invite anyone interested in our program to come along, enjoy some “Dickens family” catering, see our cattle in the flesh, and chat with us about how our cattle might complement your breeding objectives.
Our stud program is focussed on longevity, which encompasses fertility. We love hearing from clients who are pleased with how well their JAD bulls have held up. We do the hard work well before sale day, cull what needs to be culled, and only sell our best. A win-win relationship is a win for all.
On top of this, we made a huge decision in April last year to invest around $150,000 into automated feed efficiency testing. Ours is the sixth Australian cattle stud - and only Speckle Park stud - to make this investment and we believe the trial work we intend to carry out will help to shape the ideal Speckle Park of the future - one with optimised feed efficiency to benefit all throughout the supply chain, while delivering a great eating experience to the customer. We cannot lose focus of why we exist as beef producers. More on this later.
We would like to acknowledge and thank our team members, Stewart McKenzie and Sam Kerr. Over the past six months, we have calved down and tagged more than 300 stud calves (T-drops), transferred 646 embryos, AI’d 800+ stud and commercial females, as well as the usual day-today duties about the property. It’s been tiring at times but Stewart and Sam have “aimed up” and we thank them for their efforts. Thanks guys!
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” - Wayne Gretzky
We have continued our focus on travelling abroad to research different genetics ahead of making key breeding decisions, with trips in 2022 to New Zealand in June and Canada in September.
WE OWN seven donor cows in Canada, and so the primary reason for that trip for Justin and Amy was to do the joinings on those donors, so we get those critical decisions as “right” as possible.
We also visited Speckle Park studs and enjoyed a post-Covid catchup with breeders who have become friends. September (and even August going forward) proved to be an excellent time to visit Canada - preweaning, while cows were out on grass, and the weather was beautiful. It allowed us to get a proper good look at the cattle, well before snow has fallen. Our New Zealand trip for the Maungahina Speckle Park Bull Sale was a great opportunity to catch up with like-minded breeders there, chewing the fat about how we can improve the breed in years to come.
It is no secret that we have a preference for basing decisions on facts and not opinion. This is why we measure our animals at every opportunity, and we are extending that R&D focus even further. Here is a snapshot of some of what we’ve been up to:
ONE TWO THREE
IN DECEMBER 2021, we purchased 97 x F1 Speckle Park/Angus steers, all sired by JAD bulls, from our South Australian clients, the James family, Lucindale. We grew out the steers, had them on display at our 2022 JAD Sale, and then continued them on grass-only through until the lead B Double load were processed by Coles Scone for their Graze brand in July. The March/April 2021drop steers averaged a touch over 530kg, with a top of 591kg, when they were processed at just 15-16 months old. They dressed at a bit over 57%. We then selected five steers from the tail and entered them in 2023 Beef Spectacular Feedback Trial. The team placed third out of 89 teams in the Carcase section.
We continue to purchase Speckle Park-cross steers from various vendors to background on grass and sell B Double loads into feedlots or direct to works. One such consignment was purchased in late-2021 by JBS, who fed and processed them, before being good enough to provide us with comprehensive data on how they performed. They had an average dead bar weight of 705kg, for an average dressed weight of 402kg, so a dressing percentage of 57%. After an average of 163 days on feed, they had an average marble score of 2.4, with a top score of 5. ALL still had their milk teeth when processed.
We announced in April that we had made a major investment into an eightnode Vytelle system for measuring feed efficiency. The infrastructure has arrived and is now waiting for a gap in traffic to be installed. At a cost of about $150,000 installed, we are the sixth Australian stud to make this investment, and the only Speckle Park stud.
Cattle of all breeds will eat variable amounts of feed per day. Depending on the breed, some may eat more, while others may eat less than their counterparts. Residual Feed Intake (RFI), or net feed efficiency, is defined as the difference
between an animal’s actual feed intake and its expected feed requirements for maintenance and growth. Considerable variation in RFI exists among individuals within breeds or genetic strains. With a heritability of about 40%, we know with confidence that it will be passed on to progeny and can be used in parallel with other performance selection criteria. Selecting a desirable, low NFI is actually a risk-free factor in genetic selection, since it has little to no effect on progeny growth, frame size, mature size or carcase quality. The benefits of genetic selection in cattle for feed efficiency include:
▶ Reducing methane production by 30%
▶ Reducing feed intake by up to 12%
▶ Improving profitability in the feedlot
There is undeniably much focus around reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). In the cattle industry, this is something that matters greatly, and something we can’t just avoid talking about. Ruminant production systems are known for emitting methane, which is a major GHG, and it is well-known that methane output is directly correlated to feed intake. If we can reduce these emissions, we can largely improve the carbon footprint of the beef industry.
THE Speckle Park breed has enjoyed a rapid rise in popularity, and feedback from breeders and processors has been complimentary. The key to the breed’s future success will be what is done from now on to cement the breed as a viable alternative to more mainstream breeds, such as Angus. Angus is undoubtedly the breed’s biggest competitor in southern Australia, so we figure that the best way to learn how to compete with this breed, is to run them alongside. Enter: JAD Angus Stud. Established from females purchased from the Premier Angus dispersal and Kenny’s Creek Angus studs in 2020, and more recently from the Stoney Point Angus dispersal, our first drop of bulls are now 18 months old and have been run - and
measured - alongside the Speckle Park stud cattle from birth. Our stud Angus female and sire selections have been meticulously hand-selected by beef consultant, Dick Whale, who is a wealth of knowledge on all things Angus. We look forward to what we can learn by measuring these two breeds alongside each other in the years to come. With more than 600 stud calves to be born at JAD in 2023, the future is certainly looking bright (and busy!). We are more committed than ever to improving the Speckle Park breed through trial work, strict culling, research and development investment, and investment into the best genetics we can source in the breed. It will be a long road, but we are committed.
Our plan for the next couple of years is what we are referring to as “stabilising the ship”. Through the purchase of embryos from various programs across Canada and New Zealand, we have a stud herd of scale and huge genetic diversity. Now, we will select sires from within and use small numbers of the very best sires to breed the type of cattle that will be relevant into the future In consultation with clients, we will refine and progress over time.
2019.
Travel Canada and New Zealand in person to research and source the best Speckle Park genetics that meet our breeding objectives, and infuse these at JAD via AI/ET.
Measure the cattle often and in large contemporary groups, maintaining a five-star Breedplan Completeness of Performance to give clients confidence in JAD.
Select sires from within the JAD herd of performancerecorded bulls, using few sires instead of many to achieve greater uniformity and predictability in the resulting progeny.
There are few herds worldwide with as much genetic diversity as JAD. Select what works, complementary join, and replicate the best to supply our growing client base.
The wiser we get, the more we realise there is to learn.
Our New Zealand record-priced sire, with first progeny offered in 2023.
We purchased Maungahina Promise (MAU P194) for a then-New Zealand record NZ$35,000 in 2020. Promise’s progeny are super docile, with a little extra bone and length of body. He bred from the same dam as our co-owned sire, Maungahina Nikko, and by a full brother to the well-known sire, Premier 101Y Logic L11. Promise is a performance bull that has a lot to offer the breed.
JAD Quistacat Q48 (JAD Q48) was born in October 2019, used heavily as a yearling, and again each Spring since. He is the most fluent-moving Speckle Park bull we have seen, which is a result of his flawless structure. He is in the top 1% of the breed for scrotal size, and top 10% for 400-day weight, EMA, and all three fats. He stamps his progeny like no other bull we have used. A very rare gem!
We believe Quistacat to be the best bull we have bred to date.SIRE: JAD QUISTACAT Q48
A son of the great Maungahina Legacy who is breeding exceptionally well.
We purchased Maungahina Nikko (MAU N264) in 2019, in partnership with two other Australian studs. We love Nikko for how little waste he has bred in our program. We is a very well-balanced bull, breeding plenty of spring of rib and softness in his progeny. He is in the top 10% of the breed for all growth traits, scrotal size and carcase weight EBVs. Another sire breeding super quiet progeny.
Have you purchased live animals from at least one of the four JAD sales held to date? If so, you may be interested in this new initiative.
TRADITIONALLY, the sale rebate system has only been offered to livestock agents. JAD has always offered a 2% rebate to outside agents who introduce buyers to the selling agent in writing at least 24 hours prior to the sale, and settle accounts on the purchaser’s behalf within seven days of the sale (page 2 of the JAD sale catalogue).
As we steam towards our fifth annual JAD Sale, we have found that the biggest advocates for our program are our existing clients – people who have purchased and had success with our cattle, so have gone on to tell their friends and associates. As a means of thanking and rewarding clients for their support of our program, we will provide a 5% rebate on their purchases at our 2023 sale to any existing client who meets the same terms as set out for outside agents. That is, they must provide a written introduction to our selling agent, Bowyer & Livermore, at least 24 hours prior to the 2023 JAD Sale. Here is flow chart to explain the process:
Be a JAD client, who has purchased animals from at least one previous JAD Sale
Share your success using JAD genetics with your friends and associates
If they show an interest in the JAD program, send a letter of introduction to our selling agents at least 24 hours before the 2023 JAD Sale
If your contact goes on to purchase animals at the sale, and you do too, you will receive a 5% rebate on your purchase(s)!
WE HAVE been both bewildered and disappointed to see several Speckle Park studs referring to their animals’ Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) highlights in their marketing, but without any actual performance recording having even taken place – except perhaps submission of a birthweight.
We believe this to be deceiving at best, and really makes a mockery of the intent behind performance recording to genuinely identify trait leaders, so bull buyers can select for the traits they wish to breed towards, and have that actually eventuate in their progeny.
For example, we have recently seen a bull marketed on social media as being in the top 20% of the breed for Retail Beef Yield (RBY). On face value, it would appear he was a bull suitable to use over females to produce progeny that would yield higher percentages of saleable beef in a standard weight steer carcase. However, upon researching the animal on the Speckle Park Herdbook, it was discovered that the breeder had only ever submitted his birthweight to Breedplan – so, zero carcase traits had been analysed. Further, neither his sire nor dam had any traits analysed in the Breedplan system whatsoever. As a result, the accuracy for his RBY EBV was only 34%. So is the bull a trait leader for the RBY EBV, as promoted in his marketing? With an accuracy of 34%, our answer would be, ‘who knows?’
Protect yourself by purchasing seedstock from a stud that provides you with good quality data - don’t risk going down an unintended path with your genetic selections by using seedstock with poor quality, low accuracy data that is derived from genetic linkages alone and not actual measurements. Your herd and your breeding objectives deserve better.
Relying on genetic linkages alone in the formation of EBVs is fraught with danger - we all know that we can have full siblings in our household that are very different as individuals! It requires the submission of quality phenotype
records from animals in large contemporary groups to maximise the ability of Breedplan to more accurately attribute EBVs to each animal.
As stud producers, we believe our role is to collect as much data as possible to give our clients a fighting chance of achieving their breeding objectives. Every bull in our sale has at least 10 traits analysed in the Breedplan system prior sale day. This ensures EBV accuracies up around the same levels achieved in the Angus breed, for bulls of the same age.
We have held a five-star Completeness of Performance rating since 2019, which means we keep our contemporary groups intact right through to the collection of 400-day weights, scrotal sizes and carcase data in November each year - all to ensure the maximum amount of data is submitted to Breedplan and EBV accuracies are maximised. We hate looking at known culls for months on end, and watching them eat our grass all this time (especially in the drought years) but we have done it and will continue to do it for the greater good.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure – and we pride ourselves on the quality of our data. Measured performance with a strictly commercial focus. We will absolutely market the strengths of our selected sale cattle, however it is only after we have put in the hard yards and measured them from birth, culled appropriately after November each year, and invited independent assessments to ensure that only our best are offered for sale.
TERMS & CONDITIONS:
1) The semen is for stud or commercial use. 2) Semen is for within-herd use only – not for resale.
3) Any embryos produced using this semen are for within-herd use only.
4) A Speckle Park International AI Sire Permit is in place for this sire. 5) Offer ends 5pm AEDT, 18/03/2023.
YOU’VE just purchased cattle at a stud sale and want to get on with your day. But instead you now have to liaise with transport companies and get your new purchases home, and hope for no dramas along the way. Not anymore!
We have been so grateful for the overwhelming support of JAD clients from across every state of Australia. Our fifth annual sale is around the corner and we have decided to offer FREE delivery to those who purchase animals at our March 31 sale. To ensure a seamless
experience at JAD, we will deliver your purchases using the safe, predictable and highly professional services of Macdeb Livestock Transport. The Macdeb team will have three trucks present to deliver your purchases in a timely fashion. Mac, Deb and Barney Jones, together with Rachel O’Keeffe, are not only JAD clients themselves but have also become good friends, and we enjoy their visits throughout the year. They are ultraprofessional and we love doing business with them. So, on March 31, buyers will be able to know that the costs end with the knock-down price and any insurances.
WE ARE looking forward to offering our largest ever consignment of pregnant commercial heifers at a JAD Sale, with 100+ Speckle Parkinfused heifers to be offered on March 31. The majority of these heifers are PTIC by AI to sexed female JAD Napoleon N31 (JAD N31), meaning 90%+ of the progeny will be female.
JAD Napoleon N31 (JAD N31, pictured) was the top-priced bull at our inaugural sale in 2019 at $24,000. He is a wellproven heifer bull, with multiple positive calving reports from heifers sold in calf to him
previously. His progeny are easykeeping, early-maturing, very well natured, with excellent structure. This provides a wonderful opportunity for people wanting to increase their female herd and its Speckle Park composition.
“We purchased 48 Angus heifers from JAD Ag in late-2021, PTIC to sexed female JAD Napoleon N31 semen. The calves were born 100% unassisted, are all colourmarked, and the proof is in the pudding – we used JAD Napoleon N31 sexed semen again last year over 120 first calf heifers. The reason Shelly and I purchased the heifers in calf to sexed
female semen is we wanted to increase our herd with quality Speckle Park heifers as quickly as possible. By using sexed semen, you’re getting heifer calves to any bull of your choice from around the world.”
- Robert Teague, Scone NSWTO DESCRIBE Dick Whale as being one of nature’s gentlemen would go some way to describing his character. He is a man highly-regarded by many of the Angus breed’s most successful seedstock producers, and has a resume to well and truly support his status. Dick Whale operates his beef consultancy business, Independent Marketing and Breeding Services (IBMS), from his home at Wangaratta, Victoria.
Dick has worked with JAD since the stud began in 2016, having independently scrutinised every stud animal we have ever bred - in most cases at least twice each - for both structure and docility. He uses a combination of the Genetic Type Summary (GTS) and Beef Class Structural Assessment systems to score each phenotype trait. Dick’s scores are published in our annual sale catalogue, giving those who cannot make the sale in person the confidence to bid online via AuctionsPlus. Dick also attends the JAD Sale each year, providing a complimentary animal selection service for clients on sale day.
We can all suffer from a case of “owner-itis” from time to time - nothing improves the quality of an animal like ownership. As challenging as it can be, we respect Dick’s independent judgement. He holds no favourites, nor soft spots for certain genetic families - unlike us as breeders, who have closely followed each calf’s progress from birth and the families behind them. They either make the cut, or they don’t - it’s that simple. Our quest for longevity has its foundations firmly set around structural integrity. Without that, we have nothing.
IT’S clients like the James family of Lucindale, South Australia, who really motivate us to do our absolute best to take Speckle Park forward. It was a proud day on December 2 last year, when the James family topped the Naracoorte Weaner Sale with their 97 x 349kg Speckle Park-cross steers, at 8-9 months old and all by JAD bulls.
The steers all sold for $2290/head ($6.56/kg) and were purchased by Thomas Foods International (TFI). Wendy James, her son, Alec, and their agent, Ronnie Dix, Elders Lucindale, fly up each year to attend the JAD sale and we have thoroughly enjoyed following their progress with our bulls. Congratulations to you all!
You’ve joined us on the journey, watched our genetic base grow, and now we are building a future - by doing more with less. With a history of data-rich breeding, we’re now using fewer and proven sires to master larger lines of more consistent progeny.
