WHO WE ARE
Laiton, Kayla, Eric & Helen Turnham
Stud Prinicples
Waratah Speckle Park Stud is a family run business in rural New South Wales. It consists of several properties dedicated to producing top quality Australian beef. Seeing the opportunity to introduce Speckle Park cattle into the Australian market, Eric & Laiton Turnham have grown the enterprise from a small start-up with the importation of 30 Speckle Park embryos in 2008, to one of the largest Speckle Park studs in Australia in just nine years. The Turnham family are passionate about sustainable farming and breeding high quality Speckle Park cattle. The family farming operation primarily operates as a Speckle Park Stud, however has also diversified into Speckle Park composites, Brahckle cattle, semen, embryos and the fat lamb market.
Eric & Laiton use “common sense” cattle breeding to raise their stud cattle in a commercial environment. They test young bulls within their commercial herd with outstanding results. Waratah Speckle Park bulls are a source of honest and reliable genetics. The Turnham family aim to breed a line of cattle that will perform in all environments.
“Waratah Speckle Park aims to deliver quality stud and herd bulls to the market place year after year.”
WANT TO KNOW MORE
The Turnham family from Guyra have been breeding cattle since the 1940’s. They began breeding commercial Herefords and later changed to Murray Gray and Angus cattle.
In 2002, Laiton son of Eric Turnham, only aged 16 started the Waratah Angus stud with the purchase of one cow and two heifers. Under the guidance of his father, Laiton started breeding his own Angus bulls. Laiton finished school and worked at Wattletop Angus where he learnt how to Artifically inseminate, preg test and manage stud animals. While at Wattletop he managed the property Stratton, overseeing the management of 200 Angus bulls. The experience, knowledge and expertise gained during this time, Laiton has bought to now operating Waratah Speckle Park stud with his father Eric. Together, they bring over 50 years of cattle experience to the breeding of Waratah Speckle Park.
Waratah Speckle Park was born in 2008 with the purchase of embryos from Canada. Since then we have expanded, investing in more embryos from Canada as well was utilizing artificial insemination to increase genetic selection. In 2010, our first female flushed 14 embryos.
Today we continue to breed from the best sources in order to offer you the best quality bulls, heifers, embryos and semen. We also use our bulls in our commercial herd to breed quality first cross calves.
