Wattle Grove stud principal, Dale Humphries with his Speckle Park entry Wattle Grove Hall of Fame

THE bull named as heaviest on grounds during weighing today for Beef 2024’s stud beef judging starting on Tuesday has actually been on a diet.

Speckle Park entry Wattle Grove Hall of Fame S723 tipped the Rockhampton scales at a hefty 1152kg … but six weeks ago he was lugging around a whopping 1180kg.

Wattle Grove stud principal, Dale Humphries said the announcement laid to rest comments that Speckle Parks do not develop into large framed animals.

At almost three years old, Hall of Fame’s EBVs are particularly strong in calving, 200, 400 and 600-day weights. His average daily gain as measured at Rocky was ….. He was sired by Star Bank Lacerta out of dam Wattle Grove 61Y Amanda L261, providing genetics that were ‘pretty strong’ for weightgain, Dale added.

Coupled with a solid diet of oats, Hall of Fame reached his peak pre-competition weight in six months. However, in the past six weeks he’s been put on a diet of sorghum hay to curb the kilos.

“He’s a pretty good moving bull for his weight,” said Dale. “He was the highest-selling bull of our 2023 bull sale and he is the best weight-for-age bull we have ever bred. We look forward to seeing his impact on our herd and the breed.”

The young sire prospect has already been sold to Speckle Park breeding interests in Brazil, while Wattle Grove retains Australian semen rights.

“We’ll use him in our herd pretty strongly and we’ll collect semen for domestic use. I believe he’ll breed females with milk and bone,” Dale said.

Wattle Grove Hall of Fame will compete in the Speckle Park bull 30 months and under 36 months class on Tuesday.

Wattle Grove is a family-owned cattle stud near Oberon, NSW, and an early breeder of Speckle Parks, starting 16 years ago. The stud has been attending the Rocky Beef expo since 2012.

“It was the first time the stud had scored such recognition “It’s a great achievement,” Dale said.