The five hour, 440 kilometre round trip from Penola, South Australia, to Mortlake was a case of mission accomplished for 'Snow' Merrett.
Mr Merrett came to the Western Victorian Livestock Exchange at Mortlake with the express purpose of buying all the Speckle Park stock that were on offer - "no matter what the price".
The offering from Paul Riches and family, The Sisters, included a pen of 11 heifers, 375 kilograms that were knocked down to Mr Merrett for 374c/kg or $1402.50 a head.
A pen of 10 Speckle Park heifers, also from the Riches family, weighing 266kg also went to Mr Merrett at 357c/kg or $949 a head.
Mr Merrett said the heifers would be at the top of the list for special care once at their new home.
“I’ve done a lot of research into the Speckle Park and found their weight gains were impressive,” he said.
“We will let them grow out to 18 months before joining them to a Speckle Park bull.”
Mr Merrett said he aimed to build his new herd to at least 50 or 60.
Vendor Paul Riches, runs a dairy farm at The Sisters.
Cows set for culling were joined to Speckle Park sires with calves raised and the cows sold.
