Elite genetics, proven in the paddock
Novae is built on some of the breed’s strongest bloodlines, multiplied through embryo transfer and AI, then tested under commercial conditions on the Darling Downs.
We invested in Speckle Park genetics in 2017 and recorded our first purebred animal, NBE P1 Novae Parabellum, in 2018.
Foundation females were sourced from the Steggles herd: SPS N17 Nicole, SPS M18 Matilda and SPS M16 Madam. NBE Q8 Novae Quehanna is another foundation female, produced from one of our first embryo programs.
These cows are the reason the stud has come as far as it has. They are fertile, deep bodied, large capacity, heavy milking females that wean the best calves in the paddock year after year, stamping their progeny as they go. Building on our best through embryo transfer, then AI, has let us breed bulls good enough to head up other herds, with select up and coming sires kept working here.
Our females have been joined to some of the breed’s best sires: JMG 309C Notta Cause N Effect, MAU K247 Maungahina Kidmans Cove, MPC P70 Minnamurra Prometheus, SIX 101Y Royal Flesh, SPC G61 Six Star Rare Commodity and our own SPS N18 Steggles Noble Spirit.
The cow herd runs on Darling Downs black soil under planned rotational grazing with no special treatment. To stay here they have to earn their place: calve easily, rear then wean a heavy calf, get back in calf and hold condition on pasture. Year in, year out.
We know every animal by name. Every calf is weighed at birth and regularly throughout life, with structure, temperament and how each cow rears her calf all recorded. Every bull goes through a full Bull Breeding Soundness Evaluation (BBSE), including semen motility and morphology testing, and every heifer is palpated and ultrasounded. Only the best performers go back into the breeding program or are offered for sale; the rest are culled.
Through drought years as well as good ones, the herd has grown steadily. We’re always happy to walk buyers through the paddock and the pedigrees.
