First time Speckle Park exhibitors have tried and tested them in western Qld

They might be new to the Royal Queensland Show's beef cattle judging ring but Ken Griffith and Kerri Barton have certainly tried out the Speckle Park breed in the toughest of Queensland conditions.

The couple had run the breed at Hayfield west of Jundah, where Ms Barton spent over 40 years of her life, before selling up and moving down to East Greenmount near Toowoomba.

"I first saw the Speckles at FarmFest and saw how good they were doing at other properties, so we had them at Hayfield from 2019 on," Ms Barton said.

They bought their first bull, Novae Parabellum, in 2020 to use over F1 Angus heifers, whose owners are ironically next door to the property they eventually ended up buying when they shifted south.

That purchase was followed by an online purchase of a stud bull from the Dorroughby Speckle Park stud at Westbrook, plus a stud cow that was in calf to Dorroughby Royalty.

She has since given the new stud three bull calves, the latest just six weeks ago.

"We're what you might call a boutique stud," Ms Barton said. "We're breeding mainly to put in our commercial herd but we'll sell some bulls once we build up."

The appearance of their Two K stud at the Ekka came about via their purchase this year of Novae Uh Oh, now 22 months, with white colouring, at the Hot Spot multi-vendor Speckle Park Autumn Affair auction in March.

Ms Barton said they'd first taken her to the Toowoomba Royal Show, where she won her class and a reserve championship.

"That was a new experience for Ken and I," she said.

"She'd already been entered for the Ekka so we thought we'd follow through.

"She didn't win any prizes but she looked the part."

After doing the initial preparation work, they handed her over to M&M Show Steers and Fitting Service at Lismore for the final touches and to take to the big smoke.

It meant they were the newest exhibitors in the Speckle Park ring, a novel experience for Ms Barton, who said she was last there 20 years ago, when one of her sons, boarding at Toowoomba Grammar School, was involved in an activity there.

Although Hayfield was sold last year, the pair still have their commercial cattle herd running out there.

Apart from looking attractive, they like plenty of attributes of the breed, such as their medium frame and being polled.

"They are great mothers," Ms Barton said.

"They did well producing milk on marginal country, and they'd walk to water - we never lost calves out there.

"They have a good birthweight but the big attraction is that they grow quickly."