As former processors for many years, we have been asked to share with you our views and opinions of the Speckle Park Breed. We owned and operated Tru-Cut Meat's Ltd. From February 12, 1980 to January 31, 1999 in Maidstone, Saskatchewan.

During this time frame, we processed many Speckle Park steers for local breeders, including Christine Pike, The Lamont Family and The Herbert Family. We always felt the cutability (meat to bone ratio) was over high quality. We all know there are good and poor animals in all breeds. We cut and packaged steaks for Christine Pike for her to enter in a competition, which we believe, involved appearance and taste tests, and the results were always a very high grade (Camrose Steak Challenge).

I'm going to relate to you one of my most favourite memories of the Speckle Park Breed. It begins at the Lloydminster 4-H Expo a number of years ago. There were about 225 of the finest steers in the country in the show. I'm sure all beef breeds were represented. As is usually the case at mixed cattle shows, the 920lb. Speckle Park, built close to ground and looking a little round in the girth didn't stand up against the 1250 lb., modern, classy looking exotic steer which won Grand Champion of the show. We usually ended up with about 25 steers to butcher and process and that year was no exception. We felt quite privileged to get the Grand Champion to process on this occasion. As the sale continued, and the smaller Speckle Park came into the ring, I began to bid on it for many reasons. One, I knew it would dress out very good and it would work well in our business. Two, it belonged to one of our regular customers (The Herbert's), and third, I knew the price would be reasonable because of the size and breed. Before processing these animals we had a Government Meat Inspector to come out to grade the carcasses and to measure the size of the Rib Eye's. To everyone's surprise the 920 lb. Speckle Park had a 2.2 square inch larger Rib Eye measurement than the 1250 lb. Grand Champion steer. This may or may not be common, but it sure gave me a great opportunity to discuss the Speckle Park animals with staunch promoters of other breeds.

The Speckle Park Breed influenced our way of thinking enough that we used a Speckle Park bull on our 25 cows for two years.

Thank you for allowing us to pass on one of our favourite memories of your preferred breed.

Doug and Verna Staniforth
Former owners of Tru-Cut Meats Ltd.
Lashburn, Saskatchewan.