About Hanging Rock Speckle Park Stud and Beef
Hanging Rock Beef now available through Cellar Door!
After years in the planning, the Ellis' are very proud to announce the launch of Hanging Rock Beef and Hanging Rock Speckle Park Stud, late in 2013.
Why Speckle Park Cattle?
It all started 8 years ago when John and Ann Ellis were visiting the Royal Melbourne Show. They walked into the cattle arena just as the Speckle Parks were being judged. Initially the look of the animals caught their eye, however after talking to some of the breeders and finding out how great the meat was they decided that they would buy a bull- his name is Jim.
From there the herd has grown, we now have a small herd of pure bred speckle park cattle with a number of x bred cattle which will mostly be sold as meat. We have found the animals to be a joy to own. They are gentle and have great personalities.
Speckle Park meat is exceptionally tender, has great marbling as well as even fat cover. One of our draw cards to the bred was that breeders in Canada of Speckle Park beef have won the Calgary Carcass Competition for the last 7 years running.
Our Beef Moto
Ruth Ellis had always thought that if she wasn't going to be in wine (the industry in which she grew up) then she would want to market cattle. For her, when she buys a bottle of wine, she wants to know as much about it as possible and it seems that many other people do too. We want to know where the vineyard is, the way the wine was made, what vintage and variety it is and even what food would go well with it.
Why don't we ask the same questions of our beef?
It is for this reason that every piece of Hanging Rock Beef you might buy has as much detail as we can give you, including questions not often answered, such as:
- How old was the animal?
- How long was the carcass hung for?
- Where did it grow up?
- Is it a cross or pure bred?
- Best wine matches?
Along with that, we can promise you that we love our cattle and we treat them with the up most respect. We never let them get too skinny, and although it’s not nice to think about, we work very closely with our nearest local abattoir to make sure that the animals go through as little stress as possible.
Showing Speckle Park Cattle
We have decided that our cattle are so special and docile that we are going to start showing them in local and national agricultural shows around the country. John and Ruth know all about shows- between them they have over 40 years of national wine show judging experience. They are quickly finding that sipping wine is a lot different to trying to control an animal that can weigh over a tonne!
John and 4 of our youngest stud cattle attended The Royal Melbourne Show for the first time in 2014. The results were nothing short of amazing. For the full results visit our Rewiews & Awards Page. To see the photos please visit our photo gallery.