Julie believed the Speckle Park aligned with the couple’s breeding goals, produced high quality beef on pasture and were better suited to a changing climate.
Manfield Amaroo’s herd grazes on the flood plains of the Delatite River in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range.
Mark’s expertise as a former Friesian master breeder, where he used AI and ET methods extensively and his holding of many performance records in breeding Holsteins, married well with Julie’s thorough research.
The same principles used to establish their earlier dairy breeding herds helped select superior female families of Speckle Park by sourcing genetic lines from Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
“We aim for a balance of consistency, fertility and longevity,” Mark said.
“This lowers the cost of replacement.”
The stud focuses on commercial traits, such as growth, good pasture-fed conversion and grass-based marbling for which the breed is well known.
The Symonds’ bull selection is also crucial to their program, with proven sires chosen specifically to complement each cow.
“It’s a long and painstaking process concentrating on commercial traits which we blend with carefully selected sires,” Julie said.
Breeders of Speckle Parks share knowledge to help the success of the breed, allowing opportunity for those entering cattle breeding.
“The Speckle Park breed is rapidly growing for all the right reasons and we welcome everyone to our Beef Week field day and will have for sale cows, heifers, bulls, calves, semen and embryos,” she said.
Mansfield Amaroo will be open from 7.30am on Saturday, January 27 at 195 Pirie-Goughs Bay Rd, Mansfield.
For further information, phone Mark on 0417 856 575 or visit Mansfield Amaroo’s Facebook page.
