The Speckle Park breed of cattle may be new to many people, but it has firmly left its mark on the national herd over the past 10 years.

Having first been imported through embryos back in 2007, the breed now sees in excess of 800 commercial calves born each year.

So what exactly are Speckle Park cattle?

Speckle Park is a beef breed of cattle, which originated in Canada in the 1960s. Its name comes from its coat colouring and its background of the English White Park breed.

It was Bill and Eileen Lamount of Sackatchewan, Canada, who were the first to specifically start breeding the cattle as part of a development programme by combining the best traits of the Angus, Beef Shorthorn and English White Park to produce a suckler cow which was easy maintained and had a high-quality carcase but also had the desired speckle colouring.

This three-way genetic cross produces a consistently high-quality carcase with vigorous calves and cows that are excellent mothers.

The Speckle Park Association was established in 1985 but it is only since 2006 that the society has been officially recognised as a breed by the Canadian government.

The Speckle Park’s distinctive colour pattern makes it stand out from the rest and makes it appealing to many breeders.

The breed has three distinctive patterns: the classic, the leopard and the pointed white.

They can occasionally come in solid black, which is a throwback to its Angus heritage.

The classic speckle

  • The classic speckle has black flanks which fade to speckle hindquarter. It has a white top line and underline, sometimes speckle shoulders, and with a black or black roan face.

    • The leopard pattern

  • The leopard pattern shows more white than the speckle pattern. With the leopard pattern, the black sides of the speckle pattern are broken into a series of definite black spots. The number and size of the spots will vary greatly on each animal. They can have white sides with only a few black spots on their sides and also have a white top line and underline.

    • The pointed white

  • The third colour pattern is the pointed white. These animals are a dominant white colour on the body and face, but they always have black points, ears, nose, skin around the eyes, muzzle and the lower portions of the legs including the hooves are black.

    • Introduction to Ireland

    Ireland was home to the first Speckle Park calves born outside North America.

    It was a farm in Co Cork that bred the first European Speckle Park calves in 2008 through the first importation of 108 embryos in 2007 and a further importation of 148 embryos and semen straws.

    On the birth of these first calves, the Irish Speckle Park Cattle Society was established.

    Today, the breed continues to make waves across the world including Australia; New Zealand, America and Canada where it originated. Ireland now has 20 members throughout Ireland registering close to 50 pedigree calves a year.

    What does the breed offer?

    Speckle Park cattle have a number of traits which make them very desirable to breeders, butchers and consumers and it is because of these traits that the Speckle Park breed is continuing to go from strength to strength.

    Some of the traits which make the breed desirable to breeders include easy calving, naturally polled, strong maternal instinct, vigorous calves, hardiness, feed-efficient and carcase quality.

    Patrick Morrison, a Speckle Park breeder since 2009 and secretary of the society said: “When I took over the family farm 10 years ago, I wanted to move away from the commercial cattle and concentrate on a small pedigree herd.

    Speckle Park is hitting new heights each week in Canada and being the first society established outside of North America, the Irish Speckle Park Society is ideally placed to build on this exciting breed

    "I needed a breed that was easy to manage, of medium size (minimise poaching on heavy soil) and had strong maternal instincts. I wanted something unique and Speckle Park ticked all of those boxes.”

    Recently elected new society chair Edward Buckley of Macroom, Co Cork, said: “We want to continue to build on the work already done by the society and hope to develop and grow the Speckle Park breed here in Ireland in the coming years.

    "We see a very bright future for Speckle Park in Ireland and abroad, with Irish Speckle Park cross heifers currently being exported to Scotland.

    “Speckle Park is hitting new heights each week in Canada and being the first society established outside of North America, the Irish Speckle Park Society is ideally placed to build on this exciting breed,” Buckley said.

    Looking to 2019, the society has obtained semen from a number of top breeding bulls in both Canada and Australia.

    With growing numbers and as a way to market the breed to more people, the society also hopes to run the first show and sale of pedigree Speckle Park in Ireland.

    For more information go to the society’s recently launched website www.irishspecklepark.com or check out its Facebook page.