Father and son team Bill and Brad Lamport know their beef.
For the past 10 years, the Balzac-area residents have had their animals finish in the top 10 at the Calgary Stampede Quality Beef Competition, which features animals from the annual UFA Steer Classic.
This year was no exception, as the duo had three top-10 finishes for cuts of beef, which came from the Hereford and cross-bred Speckle Parks they raised on their farm.
“It is good advertising,” said Brad Lamport, 33, who, along with his father, raises and exports purebred polled Herefords at their 160-head ranch.
Besides bragging rights, the duo also took home $2,500.
The Lamports have been in the purebred Hereford business since 1942 and have been experimenting with Speckle Parks, a breed recently developed in Lloydminster from Short Horn, Angus, and English cattle with a white park pattern.
“They are known for their carcass quality,” said Lamport. “Our speckleds are crossed 50/50 with Herefords… we just find them unique.”
The Stampede competition, held July 18, judged cuts of beef, basing their criteria on marbling, rib eye area, carcass weight, yield, fat distribution and colour. The winner, Ken Malterer of Ponoka, edged out the Lamport’s third-place-earning Hereford by one point and their fourth-place Speckle by two points.
The Lamports also had Speckle Parks rank number 10 and 16, out of a total of 45 entries.
Lamport said father and son started paying attention to carcass genetics about 11 years ago, and have since made their mark in the competition.
“We try to raise cattle that have high carcass quality, longevity and feed conversion bred into them,” said Lamport.
Bill said learning to raise winning animals didn’t happen overnight.
He said ultrasounds, performed on one-year-old animals to measure back fat and marbling, helps play a huge role in determining good genetics.
“It takes several years of ultrasound (to) know which cow families carry which traits,” said Bill.
They have determined that crossing Herefords produces good results.
“The Hereford, to us, is one of the best breeds there is to cross with any other breed,” he said. Their docility means they aren’t easily spooked, which tends to make beef tough, he explained.
Bill said he is pleased with the results of the competition.
“We do like to compare our cattle with all the other breeds and we have done quite well,” he said. “We like to think our Herefords have something to do with that. Herefords have always been one of the best beef animals.”
Fred Taylor, an inspector with the Canadian Beef Grading Agency and the lead judge for the Quality Beef Competition, has tailored the rules to meet retail demands.
Optimal points are scored for: a rib eye that measures between 80 and 89 square centimetres, two to four millimetres of back fat, AAA marbling, a carcass weight between 650 and 750 pounds, white fat and fine-grain meat texture.
Taylor was pleased with this year’s results. More than 75 per cent of the entries were graded AAA or higher, while more than 90 per cent of those AAA-grade carcasses scored high enough to qualify for all branded beef programs, such as Sterling Silver or Certified Angus Beef.
“Those results are about as good as you can get,” said Taylor. “This tells me that these guys in this competition were really shooting to win it and that the cattle producers out there are generally paying more attention to producing AAA carcasses genetically.”
Speckle Parks placed five times in the top 10. Steers representing the Speckle Park, Hereford, Angus, Charolais, Limousin, Murray Gray and Simmental breeds were entered this year.
