Speckles make their mark with butchers

As a butcher of 45 years, Rob Ashton knows a thing or two about cattle and carcases.

Robert Constable is the same, having started an apprenticeship 30 years ago and then managing and owning his own retail butcher outlets in the Hunter Valley region of NSW.

Mr Ashton has two butcher shops and an abattoir and has been particularly impressed with the performance of Speckle Park steers.

Having only relatively recently been securing Speckle Park stock, he said he would continue to seek out the breed for its excellent dressing percentage, muscle, meat colour and meat flavour.

Mr Ashton stumbled onto Speckle Parks when doing some contract butchering for the Dorroughby Speckle Park stud in Westbrook, Queensland.

He said he was regularly able to process a few head of these cattle for his butcher shops in Pittsworth and Dalby, but would like supplies to grow in future.

The Speckle Park carcases that Mr Ashton has been able to get his hands on dress out at about 59 per cent.

He said this was slightly above the more traditional Angus and Hereford carcases and on a par with Limousin types.

"I prefer the British bred-type of cattle and the Speckle Park performance is very similar to Angus," he said.

"It is early maturing, so you can get good weight gain and an excellent carcase at an earlier age."

Mr Ashton processes about 50 head of cattle and 120 lambs per week at his Millmerran abattoir - mostly for his butcher shop, as well as for several other butcher shops and on private contracts with producers.

He said each cattle breed had its advantages and disadvantages, but the Speckle Park animals more than held their own against other breeds and he would like to get his hands on more of them.

"The meat is very good in terms of saleability for its appearance, texture, colour and taste," he said.

"It is very full of muscle and displays well in the butcher shops.

"It has good intramuscular fat and even rump and rib fat.

"Yield, as mentioned, is outstanding from our perspective as a processor."

Mr Ashton said he was facing significant pressures given the price of cattle in the saleyards.

But he said his retail customers were well aware of the cost of stock and there was little pushback from them at the retail end.

"Prices are high, but our customers appear happy to pay for the quality meat that we are supplying," he said.

"We are in a country area, so people know we are being squeezed and have a good general understanding of our operating conditions.

"Every week I think prices in the saleyards have peaked and then every week they just go higher.

"We get about 70 per cent of our cattle through the saleyards, so it is having a big impact on us."

Mr Constable, the man behind the shop in Singleton Square - Roberts Meats - is the only butcher in Australia that specialises in Speckle Park beef - selling about 1200 kilograms on average every week.

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He has about seven carcases processed every fortnight, mostly sourced from his father Mark Constable's Frederickton property Ersyldene.

The family runs a commercial herd as well as the Ersyldene Speckle Park stud and has been selling Speckle Park beef for more than a decade.

Mr Constable now only uses Speckle Park for his retail beef offerings and says customers actively seek it out for its taste, texture and colour. He said Speckle Park bulls from the family's operation were used over Hereford/Angus-cross cows and he sourced other young stock from several Speckle Park producers to ensure year-round supply.

"We have had Limousin and Charolais cattle in the past, but we've found - for the shop - the Speckle Park has a good flat bone, so you get a lot more meat yield," Mr Constable said.

"The European breeds have more curvature, and when you've got curvature on the outer side of the rib and shin, you're actually taking up space where you could have muscle."

Mr Constable said the Speckle Park stock had a higher meat to bone ratio, which was worth more to him than carcases from other breeds.

"When the price of bone is $11/kg, you want to maximise muscle and minimise bone," he said.

"The fat cover of Speckle Park stock is also superior.

"And young stock - at 10 to 14 months of age - start to marble at an earlier age than what you see in other breeds. This is all possible being fed on grass.

"Meat texture and colour is exceptional because our cattle have such a good temperament on the farm, being raised in a low stress handling system.

"We have such a niche business being able to do Speckle Park all year round by being vertically integrated from the farm through the processor at Alexander Downs and on to the retail shelf."

Mr Constable labels his beef as Speckle Park in the butcher shops and says customers now actively seek it out.