The Farmer
My name is Bill Flowerday. Most of my life was spent dairy farming with a purebred Friesian herd. This also provided me the opportunity to rear dairy beef calves, which gave me an insight to what the market requires and still does today.
When we moved to a larger dairy operation, we reared and sold bull calves as 10 day-olds at the Frankton Sales. These calves regularly fetched the highest price and we had repeat buyers wanting our calves each year. Quality stock was then, and are now, the priority and continual high-quality stock is something we are very proud of.
We left dairy farming in the 90's to grow kiwifruit. My sons now run the kiwifruit business, which allows me to focus on my passion which is breeding Speckle Park cattle .... as they say, “you can take the man away from the farm, but you can’t take farming away from the man."
The stud
Korako Speckle Park was inaugurated with the purchase of two purebred Speckle Park bulls to run with a herd of 65 commercial Angus cows. A year later 10 Speckle Park embryos were purchased from Maungahina Stud which was the start to developing the purebred Korako Speckle Park stud herd. Further embryos have been purchased from Maungahina and Premier Cattle Company which has resulted in Korako Speckle Park having a base of 30 females to further expand the stud and provide a sound base to breed purebred Speckle Park bulls to sell.
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While the Speckle Park / Angus cross are not, and can never be registered as stud animals, the bulls are proving to be a popular and an alternative option for the dairy industry.
The Farm
This year, 2020, the Ohauiti farm where the stud was established has been sold and a larger farm purchased in the Lower Kaimais. The new property has been converted from a deer farm to a beef farm focusing solely on stud cattle with no trading or outside grazing taken in.
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This move will allow the stud to expand and provide more opportunities to focus on providing good quality service bulls.
