Speckle Park International Inc. Agricultural Business Research Institute

University of New England

Armidale NSW 2351 Australia

Tel: 02 6773 3056 Fax : 02 6772 5376 Email: specklepark@abri.une.edu.au

August 2016 Newsletter

BOARD MEMBERS

The ballot for the Election of Directors 2016 was completed in April 2016 with the following

Board Members elected (in alphabetical order):

Robbie Clark (New Zealand)

Greg Ebbeck (Australia)

Jason Goodfellow (Canada)

Derek Hayward (New Zealand)

John Herbert (Canada)

Errol Howard (Australia)

Dale Humphries (Australia)

Mark McKenzie (New Zealand)

Mike Weller (Australia)

Recent Document Updates

There have been some recent changes made to the regulations, the membership form and

the transfer form.

A copy of the updated documents and a list of changes to the regulations will be sent out, as

soon as possible, to all Members along with the 2016/2017 annual memberships. The

updated documents are also available on the website at www.specklepark.org.

Please read through the changes thoroughly. There is now a membership renewal section

on page 2 of the membership form. This needs to be signed, annually, and returned to the

Society along with payment.

SPI WEBSITE

We are currently in the process of updating/revamping the website.

The Board has decided to reduce the price of a 12 month ad on the rolling banner from $900

(plus GST) to $700 (plus GST). The price for three months remains the same at $250 (plus

GST).

PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL

The Society now has two marquees available for Members to use at field days or sales etc.

There is no charge for the use of the marquees, however it will be the Members

responsibility to organise the pick-up and return of the marquees.

There are a number of caps and polo shirts available for purchase. Merchandise forms are

available on the website at www.specklepark.org.

It would be greatly appreciated if Members with any SPI promotional material in their

possession, such as banners, flags, pull ups etc. could let Melissa know exactly what you

have and where it is.

BREEDPLAN

Once again the Board vigorously asks any breeders with over 10 head to become active

BREEDPLAN members and submit as much data as they possibly can over the coming months

and ensuing years. We need your help as there is currently very little BREEDPLAN data in the

system.

Any weights, scan data and scrotal circumferences are of great help to the breed in getting

tangible numbers up and running. Historic data can also be submitted, so if you have kept old

weights please feel free to send them to Melissa as the SPI office.

Discussions with BREEDPLAN suggests that if we can get at least 10 to 15 of the larger breeders

involved in submitting weights regularly to Speckle Park BREEDPLAN it will have a significant

positive effect and outcome for us all.

Real numbers with high accuracies will give your bull buyers the added incentive and confidence

to change to Speckle Park bulls next time they look for their sire replacement.

SPI Inc. is now a member of SBTS which can provide training for all members in the form of field

days and webinars.

SPI SPONSORED SALE 2016

The 2016 SPI Sponsored Sale was held in Scone on the 30th April 2016 and was a great

success. Top price of the day was $21,000. Bulls averaged $6212, females averaged $6205,

steers averaged $1025, F1 females averaged $1352, embryos averaged $842 and semen

averaged $78 per straw. Congratulations to all those involved. Special thanks to the 2016

Sale Committee for the fantastic job they did.

The 2017 Sale Committee is now in the process of organising the 2017 sale, to be held in

Scone around April. This will be confirmed, and more details will be available, at a later date.

UPCOMING 2016 SHOWS

Royal Brisbane Show – EKKA 4 – 14 August

Royal Adelaide Show 2-11 September

Royal Melbourne Show 17- 27 September

Royal Perth Show 24 September – 1 October

The Bendigo Show is being held on Friday and Saturday the 21st and 22

nd of October 2016. This is

three weeks after Melbourne and Speckle Park will be the feature breed. We encourage anyone

interested to come along and make this event a great success. For more information please contact

John Ellis on 03 5427 0542 or 0418 313 853.

FEATURE BREED 2017

SPI Inc. will be feature breed in Canberra 2017 (24-26 February) and Melbourne 2017 (17-27

September). This is a fantastic opportunity to promote the breed and we encourage all

Members to consider entering a show team. If anyone would like to join the Show

Committee for Canberra (or Melbourne at a later date) please let Melissa know, if you

haven’t already done so, as soon as possible.