Technical Sub-Committee

REPORT

To the SPI Community,

I am pleased to be able to provide a positive update on behalf of the technical sub-committee. Firstly, let me extend sincere thanks to the members who have sat on our committee in the past, and welcome to our new members. Every member, both past and present, have stepped into their roles with passion and a commitment to achieving the commercially focussed objectives of our committee.

There are two key initiatives that have come from our committee over recent months which we highlight below, and we have a number of proposals in the works that we will provide more details on as they come to light.

2023 Feedlot Trial

Speckle Park International are seeking expressions of interest for F1 or above (Speckle x British breed) steers for a trial in mid 2023 that will compare the performance of Speckle Park against other British breeds under commercial feedlot conditions.

This trial is a great opportunity to collect and showcase commercial performance data from Speckle Park infused cattle. Breed Focus on Breedplan and Single-Step Genetic Evaluation

Our committee has been working closely with the team at ABRI and SBTS to drive uptake of Breedplan, and looking to the future with Single Step Genetic Evaluation. Our key take home messages from these meetings:

- The commercial industry is increasingly data driven and if Speckle Park wants to ensure the longevity of our breed and take greater market share than we need data to prove the value proposition of our breed.

- Collecting and submitting performance data to

Breedplan is the quickest and easiest way to ensure continued improvement of our breed with regards to commercially relevant traits, and to grow market share and confidence.

- Smaller breeders shouldn’t underestimate the value of their data. As an example, Gestation Length (GL) is one of the easiest measured and most economically important traits yet for a breed with such a high proportion of AI matings each year it is severely under recorded. Tim Weller has written a great article on GL, make sure to have a read!

- For Speckle Park to be able to utilise, and gain value from Single-step Genetic Evaluation we need volume of phenotypic data points from members submitting performance data. A lack of phenotype data from later in life traits such as Mature Cow

Weight (MCW) and scan data for both bulls AND heifers have been flagged as key roadblocks from the team at ABRI.

We welcome your feedback and suggestions for future programs; you can contact the technical committee via email technical@specklepark.org

Commercial Survey

The commercial survey was released earlier this month and aims to provide SPI with valuable insight into the breed and how we can best service and drive uptake in commercial herds.

We encourage all members to get behind these projects, even if that is simply sharing the details with commercial breeders you know who are using Speckle Park bulls; the success of these initiatives will be a win for the breed, and the membership as a whole.

Kind Regards, Naomi Hobson Chairperson