Sky-high market for Speckle Park females

Speckle Park cattle have achieved incredible prices through the saleyard and online store cattle auctions, as well as stud sales, with Australian studs setting new records.

Records were also broken in saleyards along the East Coast.

One of the first saleyards to record a high price for Speckles in 2020 was Warwick, where first-cross heifer calves sold for 801 cents a kilogram in March.

Speckles continued to command high prices throughout the year as commercial producers looked to restock following drought.

Females have been particularly sought-after, according to Speckle Park International CEO Hannah Bourke.

"There's huge demand for females, to the point where we can't breed them fast enough," she said.

A new commercial record for the breed was achieved in November, when a line of four cows, with their second calves at foot, sold online for $5580 a unit.

The cows and calves were part of a larger offering from vendors Dale and Robyn Scott from Gippsland, whose 45 units averaged $4034.

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Later that month records tumbled at the Tamworth Regional Livestock Exchange when a pen of nine first-cross cows and their second calves from Kayla and Mitch Kelaher, Gunnedah, made $4050, breaking the previous high set a fortnight earlier, when cows and calves on account of Red Rock sold for $3650.

Record prices for stud cattle were broken in Australia and Canada throughout 2020.

Wattle Grove stud's sale in October reached a high of $68,000 for Wattle Grove Paperboy, setting a new world record for bulls.

Paperboy was sold to Stephen Ariss, Temple Mount Farm, Woodend, Victoria, and his sale exceeded the previous top price for the breed of $60,000, paid at the Summit3sale in 2016 in Canada for River Hill 50T Crusader 025C by a syndicate of Australian, English and Canadian buyers, including NSW stud Minnamurra Speckle Parks.

Minnamurra had set the previous Australian record with Minnamurra Plunderer P196, who sold for $40,000 in September.

Another high price achieved last year was a new record for New Zealand, with the Maungahina stud, Masterton, selling Maungahina Promise P194 for $NZ35,000 to Justin and Amy Dickens, JAD Speckle Park.

Wattle Grove's October sale was a success in the bulls and females, which topped at $31,000 for Wattle Grove 01B Niome, purchased by Steve and Diep Atkin, Gotcha Speckle Parks. The top heifer price was just shy of the then national record of $32,000. A new world record female price was set in January last year, with $45,000 paid for a half interest in Inc Havana 101F at the inaugural Launch Speckle Park Sale in Denver, Colorado, US.

The success continued this year, with Wattle Grove Ba Da Boom Q127 selling for $65,000 to Gotcha Speckle Parks at the stud's Toowoomba sale in February.

The Humphries family was able to smash the Australian record for females at the Queensland sale, with Wattle Grove 107D Marusa Q817 selling for $36,000 to Joshua Richards, Mt Kilcoy, who also purchased Wattle Grove L275 Princess Wattle Q873 for $31,000.

Demand for genetics packages is also high, with four embryos from Battalion Heartbreaker M1, selling for $5050 each in November.