Robert Constable has been an award-winning butcher based in the NSW Hunter Valley for 34 years, and still operates his popular Robert’s Meats butcher shop at Singleton. Robert has held leadership positions with the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) for more than 20 years, and is the current Deputy Chair of the Board, and Chairman of the Retail Council. He is a Technical Advisor to the Board of MINTRAC, National Meat Industry Training Advisory Council. He is a multi Sausage King competition winner stemming back 30 years, and is the current Chairman of the World Butchers’ Challenge. Robert just got back from Paris, where he judged this global competition. He has worked with Speckle Park beef for more than 15 years, so has unique insights to share about the product.

Robert’s parents are Mark and Colleen Constable, who operate Ersyldene Speckle Park and supply Speckle Park animals to their son’s butcher shop. Robert operated up to six butcher shops across the NSW Hunter Valley and another at Forster on the Mid North Coast. But he is now back with just the one butcher shop, and he likens this to “semi-retirement” by comparison (although he’s still flat out!). One of Robert’s biggest joys is mentoring his apprentices into confident operators themselves.

On Speckle Park, Robert’s answer to Amy’s signature podcast question, “Why Speckle Park?” is simple: why not? “I don’t think there’s anything better out there,” he says.

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Tim Weller is the Marketing Manager of genetics company, World Wide Sires, where he has worked for the past 12 years now. He and his wife, Lindy, also run their Wellerlou Speckle Park stud on their property at Coolamon in the Riverina region of south-west NSW. Tim has built his career around relationships and people – not just sales and numbers. Instead, it’s about moving forward together with customers in a win-win relationship. Tim was among a group of 10 individuals who started World Wide Sires in Australia in 2013, where he has been the Marketing Manager ever since.

In this podcast episode, Tim speaks about the positive role genomics has played in the dairy industry while also cautioning the need for raw data to be submitted to Breedplan to validate genomically-enhanced EBVs. Bringing in carcase data to Breedplan from large groups of commercial Speckle Park animals is one method Tim is lobbying to enhance EBV accuracies and validation.

Tim speaks about the power – and need – for strict culling in a stud program, and the need to bring in outside females from other studs, from time to time, to benchmark their own animals and not get “owners’ disease” – where stud owners think their animals are the “best” in the breed.

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Jake Furst is the talented Executive Chef of fine dining restaurant, Cinder, which is nestled within the bluestone walls of the 150-year-old Terminus Hotel in Fitzroy North, Melbourne. Jake won the prestigious AHA Victorian Chef of the Year Award in 2023, and you may have seen him interviewed for ABC Landline in March, in Tim Lee’s report about Speckle Park beef.

A key to Jake’s career success has been his commitment to never say ‘no’ to an opportunity, and thankfully that included answering the call from Speckle Park breeder, Paul Guy, Speckle Park Certified, to try Speckle Park beef in late-2024.

Jake’s first impression of trying Speckle Park beef – which originated from JAD Speckle Park - was the obvious lower melting point of the fat and then the “exceptional” flavour in the beef. It was some of the best eye fillet he’d ever had – a cut known for its tenderness but not so much for its flavour profile.

Jake says Speckle Park beef has got a good story and “it’s a really, really good product” – very rarely do those two elements line up. His chefs are “screaming out for more” Speckle Park beef.

“Everyone’s always after a good news story and to eat healthier, and to have options that are better for the environment, better for the farmers, better for the cows, better for everyone,” he says. “There aren’t many products on the market that tick the boxes that Speckle Park are ticking.”

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