By Alice McFarlane

Australian producers return to Saskatchewan for Speckle Park genetics

Jan 2, 2024 | 3:35 PM

An Australian cattle producer keeps coming back to Canadian Western Agribition (CWA) in Regina, Sask. because the show has the best genetics in the cattle industry.

This was Greg Ebbeck’s 38th trip to CWA and the 110th time he has been to Canada.

Ebbeck, who runs a company called 6-star Speckle Park, said he has made several business contacts in that time and has sourced excellent genetics on those many trips. He has made connections across the province from the southeast all the way to Lloydminster.

“It gives us a window to look at where we might want to go to after Agribition to try and make contact with new clients where we can buy embryos and semen,” Ebbeck said.

He started his Speckle Park herd in Australia in 2005. He saw the breed at the show and liked it. He rotates between 40 and 60 head in his herd.

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“We went to the expense and time and effort to start the breeding in Australia, via embryos and taking embryos and semen back home. After BSE, we couldn’t take cattle, so we had to do it through genetics,” he said.

Ebbeck said for the first 40 years they we were Hereford breeders and now they’re full-time Speckle Park breeders because he favours the carcass and meat quality.

“A lot of things to do with actual commercial reality of beef breeding, dressing percentages and marbling and all the things that we as cattle breeders need to to sell our product as a protein against pork, chicken, and lamb,” he said. “It’s a quality product so that’s why we’ve gone into Speckle Park.”

The Speckle Park was developed in Saskatchewan by cross-breeding stock of the British Aberdeen Angus and Shorthorn breeds. (Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

Ebbeck said the Canadian cattle industry is held in high esteem. He said Canadians produce good seedstock and overall they’re very sound.

“They come from a background of a hard condition. We know that if you’ve got cattle here that have survived your climate extremes, they’ll probably do the same thing at home,” he said. “People say it doesn’t get hot, but it gets hot here too. So, you’ll get plenty of days in your 30’s but we don’t have many minus 30’s.”

Ebbeck said there are always new things to learn at Agribition like vaccinations and feeding.

“We all have different diseases and different problems but some of our feeding rations have changed because of what we’ve taken back from the Canadian way of feeding cattle,” he said. “Genetically, we’re all about the same with embryo transfer and semen collection. It’s a world industry now so, it’s very close to each other.”

Over 70 countries were represented at last year’s Agribition.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

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