Scott Purcell and his fiancée, Tia, operate their paddock-to-plate business, Bonkonia Beef, based at Merton in north-east Victoria, and sell their beef in the local region and into Melbourne. The first generation farmers also market their beef at farmers’ markets, so receive regular feedback about their products. They have been selling Speckle Park beef for since November 2023, and have run their stud, Bonkonia Speckle Park since 2019, so they are well-placed to share about the market acceptance of Speckle Park beef.   Scott’s decision to go into Speckle Park came off the back of a BBQ at a friend’s house, where he tried Speckle Park beef. “It was hands down, probably the best steak I’d ever had – and I’d eaten a lot of steaks!” Since starting Bonkonia Beef, word-of-mouth marketing has been hugely successful for them, with their beef largely “selling itself”, together with Facebook, charity event donations, and farmers’ markets. Now, Scott regularly has customers come back to tell him their recent purchase from Bonkonia Beef was the best steak they had ever had! “I love getting customer feedback, and we have never had a single complaint, which is pretty special as well.”   Scott loves the versatility of the Speckle Park breed. “They’re so easy-doing – they look after us as much as we look after them. They’ve got a point of difference and most importantly, they have a story. It’s a story that’s worth telling and needs to be told. And obviously the beef is second to none.”   A question posed by Scott during this episode: what’s your ‘why’?   If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening! You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or Podbean.

Robert Constable has been an award-winning butcher based in the NSW Hunter Valley for 34 years, and still operates his popular Robert’s Meats butcher shop at Singleton. Robert has held leadership positions with the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) for more than 20 years, and is the current Deputy Chair of the Board, and Chairman of the Retail Council. He is a Technical Advisor to the Board of MINTRAC, National Meat Industry Training Advisory Council. He is a multi Sausage King competition winner stemming back 30 years, and is the current Chairman of the World Butchers’ Challenge. Robert just got back from Paris, where he judged this global competition. He has worked with Speckle Park beef for more than 15 years, so has unique insights to share about the product.   Robert’s parents are Mark and Colleen Constable, who operate Ersyldene Speckle Park and supply Speckle Park animals to their son’s butcher shop. Robert operated up to six butcher shops across the NSW Hunter Valley and another at Forster on the Mid North Coast. But he is now back with just the one butcher shop, and he likens this to “semi-retirement” by comparison (although he’s still flat out!). One of Robert’s biggest joys is mentoring his apprentices into confident operators themselves.   On Speckle Park, Robert’s answer to Amy’s signature podcast question, “Why Speckle Park?” is simple: why not? “I don’t think there’s anything better out there,” he says.   If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening!  Podbean.

Tim Weller is the Marketing Manager of genetics company, World Wide Sires, where he has worked for the past 12 years now. He and his wife, Lindy, also run their Wellerlou Speckle Park stud on their property at Coolamon in the Riverina region of south-west NSW. Tim has built his career around relationships and people – not just sales and numbers. Instead, it’s about moving forward together with customers in a win-win relationship. Tim was among a group of 10 individuals who started World Wide Sires in Australia in 2013, where he has been the Marketing Manager ever since. In this podcast episode, Tim speaks about the positive role genomics has played in the dairy industry while also cautioning the need for raw data to be submitted to Breedplan to validate genomically-enhanced EBVs. Bringing in carcase data to Breedplan from large groups of commercial Speckle Park animals is one method Tim is lobbying to enhance EBV accuracies and validation. Tim speaks about the power – and need – for strict culling in a stud program, and the need to bring in outside females from other studs, from time to time, to benchmark their own animals and not get “owners’ disease” – where stud owners think their animals are the “best” in the breed. If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening! You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or Podbean.

Jake Furst is the talented Executive Chef of fine dining restaurant, Cinder, which is nestled within the bluestone walls of the 150-year-old Terminus Hotel in Fitzroy North, Melbourne. Jake won the prestigious AHA Victorian Chef of the Year Award in 2023, and you may have seen him interviewed for ABC Landline in March, in Tim Lee’s report about Speckle Park beef. A key to Jake’s career success has been his commitment to never say ‘no’ to an opportunity, and thankfully that included answering the call from Speckle Park breeder, Paul Guy, Speckle Park Certified, to try Speckle Park beef in late-2024. Jake’s first impression of trying Speckle Park beef – which originated from JAD Speckle Park - was the obvious lower melting point of the fat and then the “exceptional” flavour in the beef. It was some of the best eye fillet he’d ever had – a cut known for its tenderness but not so much for its flavour profile.   Jake says Speckle Park beef has got a good story and “it’s a really, really good product” – very rarely do those two elements line up. His chefs are “screaming out for more” Speckle Park beef. “Everyone’s always after a good news story and to eat healthier, and to have options that are better for the environment, better for the farmers, better for the cows, better for everyone,” he says. “There aren’t many products on the market that tick the boxes that Speckle Park are ticking.” If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening! You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or Podbean.

Andrew Hosken operates his agribusiness sales and consultancy, Hosken Stock & Land from Tamworth in northern NSW. He has had an extensive career as a livestock agent spanning 40 years, across eastern Australia. This included over 25 years at Elders, where he finished as the zone livestock manager covering northern NSW, Queensland, and the top end of the Northern Territory. One of Andrew’s major clients is Minnamurra Pastoral Company, the home of Minnamurra Speckle Park at Coolah in Central West NSW. When Minnamurra first went into Speckle Park – back in 2011 - Andrew was a typical sceptic. But then they won their first carcase feedback competition, then their second. “When it got to the 5th, 6th or 7th time that they won an award in just about everything that they had entered, I thought well OK, there is something inherently in these cattle,” he says. “And it’s gone on from there… There is something inherently good about the performance of Speckle Park.” “I think you will find the Speckles have a very strong place in the industry,” he says. “I don’t think there’s any feedlot or any abattoir we’ve sent (Speckle Park) stock to that haven’t wanted to buy them again… We’ve had a number of abattoirs and feedlots across all states put forward various comments about the consistency and the quality of the cattle that come in from Minnamurra.  Now, that to me says a fair bit. There’s definitely a place for the Speckle cattle. Andrew talks about consistency of Speckle Park cattle a lot in this episode. He says their carcase data is “consistently very, very good”, regardless of where the cattle have been processed, or breed composition in a cross with Speckle Park sires. As the breed increases in volume, so too will its broader awareness and appreciation by our commercial beef industry. If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening! You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or Podbean.

Mark McKenzie is a pioneer of the Speckle Park breed in New Zealand, teaming up with a colleague to import the breed into the land of the long white cloud, back in 2008. Adding Speckle Park to the long-running and well-respected Maungahina Stud prefix no doubt raised a few eyebrows among staunch Hereford breeders, with Maungahina having over a century of renown in the whiteface breed. But alas, Mark pushed forward with introducing Speckle Park to New Zealand, and he has worked hard in the years since to refine the breed to suit his conditions and industry demands. Mark is the fifth generation McKenzie at Maungahina, near Masterton at the bottom of the north island. He operates the property with his father, Bruce, wife, Melissa, and their daughter, Molly, has recently joined the family business as the sixth McKenzie at Maungahina! Mark has always taken a ruthless approach to culling, leaving him with a Speckle Park herd he is proud of. With the rise of the Speckle Beef meat brand in New Zealand, Mark sees a very bright future ahead for the breed – as long as the right animals are produced, with the right genetic merit. If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening! You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or Podbean.

Dwight Wyatt operates Wyatt Artificial Breeding Services and Meadow View Farms Speckle Park, together with his wife, Noela. They are based at Goolmangar, near Lismore in North East NSW. Dwight shares the same origin as the Speckle Park breed – he too originates from Canada, but has called Australia home since 1988. Dwight was just 13 or 14 years old when he did his week-long training in cattle artificial insemination, a course run by the University of Manitoba. By the time he was 17, he had his own area to service, and was regularly inseminating dairy cows. For about 35 years, Wyatt Artificial Breeding Services has serviced predominantly the dairy industry, and Dwight has seen many trends and industry changes during that time. One that is here to stay, he says, is Speckle Park. “We’ll probably be selling Speckle Park till the day we finish up because the dairy farmers love them,” he says. In this episode, Dwight shares his own experiences with Speckle Park, and those of his vast client base. If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening! You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or Podbean.

Geoff Jones and his wife, Toni-Ann, own three butcher shops at Grafton, in North East NSW, and nearby Wooli. They also market their meat products at the Yamba Farmers’ Markets. They have been selling Speckle Park beef for eight years, so are well-placed to share about its market acceptance, and just how much butchers enjoy working with Speckle Park.   Geoff’s family was among the first to introduce bos indicus cattle to the Grafton district, so he is used to operating outside of the status quo. Geoff was initially attracted to Speckle Park after reading about their flat-boning characteristics, and it is the consistent tenderness of Speckle Park beef that keeps his customers back for more!   If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening! 

Dennis Power is General Manager of one of the largest Speckle Park stud and commercial herds in the world, Minnamurra Speckle Park. Based at Coolah in Central West NSW, Minnamurra Speckle Park has played a pivotal role in demonstrating the commercial relevance of the Speckle Park breed, winning various feedback trials and carcase competitions. Not once, or twice, but many times – dating back as far as 2013. The consistently outstanding performance of Minnamurra Speckle Park cattle in these competitions has gone a long way to proving that the Speckle Park breed is no fad, but is instead a breed with true commercial merit – and it is justifiably here to stay. If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening!

Gerald Wyatt has had an extensive career, from farming in Tasmania to assessing cattle across the eastern seaboard through his business, Classic Livestock Management Services. Now in his late 70s, Gerald has spent decades analysing traits in livestock that can indicate important fertility, temperament, health and eating quality characteristics. From ear wax to scaliness of tail hair, jawbone and rib structure and even positioning of hair swirls, these seemingly irrelevant characteristics can tell you so much about your livestock. The consistency and femininity of the Speckle Park heifers that Gerald has assessed has really impressed him, especially given the breed’s infancy. The escutcheons – or milk lines - on a mob of heifers averaged 2 in his grading scale, which is “as good as it gets”.   If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening!

Simon Eriksen has been in the meat marketing and distribution business for nearly 25 years, having founded Neat Meat in 2001. Today, when he’s out to dinner with friends and associates, the conversation generally heads straight to Speckle Beef, a Speckle Park beef brand founded by the New Zealand company and now served at more than 100 restaurants, premium butchers, and in the midst of heading abroad. Consistent excellence in the Speckle Beef product has chefs craving more - it's consistently tender, with a beautiful natural flavour. This episode shares Simon's own fascinating career story, while also detailing the evolution of the highly successful Speckle Beef brand. Something tells us this brand is only just getting wound up! If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening!

Back in around 2016, Nicky Reeves hadn’t even seen or heard about Speckle Park cattle when she first tasted Speckle Park beef. Further research quickly evolved into a newfound passion for the breed. What better way to market their Speckle Park cattle and beef than to establish the Maffco Brewery and Distillery, incorporating Speckle Park beef into the restaurant menu. But let’s not forget their Benbullen Speckle Park stud, Benbullen Speckle Park direct beef sales arm, livestock transport business, and they also host the annual Maffco Pitmaster Barbecue Competition and Festival! To say Nicky is a busy woman really is an understatement, but direct feedback from happy customers about their experience eating Speckle Park beef spurs her on. The former livestock agent and her partner, Lashay Tricker, have built a phenomenal business that incorporates several of their family members.   This is a great story about relationships, determination to succeed, family, and a deep-seated belief in Speckle Park cattle and beef.  If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening!

Paul Guy began his journey in the Speckle Park breed through his stud, Te Mooi Speckle Park, based at Londrigan in Victoria. Currently, his focus is far further down the supply chain, working with leading restaurant chefs in Melbourne to get his Speckle Park Certified beef brand up and running. He is a data man at heart, and his solid understanding around the role of data in producing a quality product for the consumer is core to the path he is walking now - ultimately delivering an outstanding eating experience of Speckle Park beef for the consumer.  If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening!

Renowned beef consultant, Dick Whale, has run his business, Independent Breeding & Marketing Services (IBMS), for more than 20 years, and prior to that managed Trangie Research Station, a feedlot, worked at Elders in marketing, and spent time studying meat science in the United States. Dick shares his wealth of experience in this episode. He sheds light on his concerns about the current state of the Australian beef industry, and where he sees it a decade from now.  If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening!  

Justin Dickens was raised at Wanaaring in Far West NSW and then Coolah in Central West NSW, before embarking on a career in livestock production and farm management. As the "J" in JAD, Justin shares his story and his answer to the all-important question, Why Speckle Park?   If you enjoy this episode, please share it among your network, and leave a review. Thanks for listening!