Hi! We’re Elgin and Joan Craig. Our farm is E & J Craig Farms the home of Red Maple Speckle Park located near Arthur, Ontario. We’re excited to be part of the inaugural Designer Fashion Speckle Park Sale!
Every herd has its’ own design and development. We started talking about raising beef cattle on a beach in Florida in January 2015. It was a great place to start the conversation! We had just retired from dairy farming (Elgin) and teaching (Joan) and we decided we could have an interesting time beef farming together. We decided to pursue a Speckle Park cow/calf herd as we were impressed by their ability to convert forage to meat. We wanted a breed that was known for good temperament, easy calving and females that mothered well. We found that the quality and taste of the meat was everything that people had raved about. We also met a lot of really keen SP breeders and their enthusiasm was really appealing. Once we made these decisions, we decided to purchase 12 purebred females from one farm and 12 commercial females from one farm. These two groups have been tremendous seed stock for our herd. Over time we also purchased some individual females. Our bull purchases were based on selecting the best possible genetics that were affordable to us.
Our herd has developed consistently and we are now in a position where we are able to offer top-notch breeding stock. We focused on breeding from our best cow families while dairy farming and we have continued with that proven strategy in our beef herd. We continue to focus on using the best bulls for our herd (A.I and herd sires) and we have also been able to select from our own young bulls to use. We believe that one of the most important traits that the SP breed offers is their adaptability to various climates and to do so well on pasture and hay. Our rotational pasture management is key to how we farm and we are thrilled with how well our cattle do.
Where to from here? Big goals, steady steps! We know which cow families work best under our management systems. So, we will continue to develop these families. We aim to breed cattle that are structurally correct, efficient and meet the demands of our customers for breeding stock and for the customers who purchase our direct marketed meat. We want to promote Speckle Park as the beef choice by consumers, butchers, chefs and restaurants. Other goals include taking a showstring to Agribition and continuing to host visitors who want to know more about this great breed. And of course, to have some fun and to continue beef farming together.
If you have questions – contact us by email craigcrest@xplornet.com
call – 519-831-3519 or visit our website https://www.redmaplespecklepark.ca/
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