Bull takes top honours

JASON and Sarah Keays from Fish Creek Farm have bred another supreme champion Speckle Park exhibit, with Fish Creek Farm Storm M1 taking out the prize at the Sydney Royal Easter Show recently.
Even more impressive was the bull’s top three placing in the Urquhart Trophy for the supreme beef exhibit at the show, with feature breed Hereford taking top honours.
The Keays also took out supreme champion Speckle Park exhibit at the Royal Melbourne Show in 2016 with Fish Creek Farm Thunderstruck L1.
At almost two years old, Storm weighed in at 950 kilograms, had rib fat of 11 centimetres, rump fat of 16cm and his eye muscle area was a “huge” 135cm.
Mr Keays said the bull’s success at Sydney makes him the highest ranked Speckle Park bull in the world.
“It was only four weeks ago we pulled him out of the paddock and took him to Warragul, and he won supreme there,” he said.
“Out of the paddock, he was just unbelievable, so I thought I might take him to Sydney.”
Mr Keays said he enlisted the help of Jack Nelson to take him up to the Easter Show.
“Jack did such a wonderful job, got the job done and won everything,” he said.
“Storm won supreme exhibit against all the good ones, some of them are a year older than him…at least 60 other Speckle Park exhibits.”
This year saw the largest number of Speckle Parks at the Sydney show.
“Even more impressive, was the top three out of every bull in shed at Sydney, (there was) probably 1000 of them,” Mr Keays said.
The Keays bred Storm at their Fish Creek property and the impressive bull already has some calves on the ground, which Mr Keays said are looking impressive.
“I put him to my best cows when he was 13 or 14 months old. He was working up until I put him on the trailer to go to Warragul. I don’t know any show bull that would do that,” he said.
Mr Keays admitted there was no such thing as a perfect animal, but thought Storm came pretty close.
“Storm is the package. He has got great depth, massive hindquarter and great neck extension,” he said.
“He hasn’t been on anything but pasture and hay since the Royal Melbourne Show last year. He is an easy doing bull, he has perfect feet, perfect confirmation and he is quiet.
“He has done it all on his own. For an animal to come out of the paddock only a few weeks ago, he has obviously got some freaky ability about him.”
Mr Keays said he has been refining his breeding herd over the past few years and now has around 44 cows at Fish Creek and 20 off the farm.
“The herd is getting sharper and sharper every year. Give me another five or 10 years,” he said.
“We have had two supreme champions in two years, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney, with two different animals.”
Storm will be contributing to the Keays’ breeding program for a little longer yet.
“I am not quite ready to move him on yet. We have had no shortage of offers on him, but he is going to stay here,” he said.

Big win: from left, Royal Agricultural Society councillor Stuart Davies, Fish Creek Farm’s Sarah and Jason Keays with Fish Creek Farm Storm M1, handler Annie Pumpa and Jason Sutherland from International Animal Health at the Sydney Royal Easter Show recently. Storm won best Speckle Park exhibit in the show, and also came in the top three for the Urquhart Trophy, for supreme beef exhibit at the show.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Apr 4 2018. Filed under Rural News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry