Smart bull, what is his breeding?
I'm surprised your stock seem to be so small. They look taller. Most MG's in NZ these days would be more like frame score 5 or 6. When we first started breeding them back in 1979 they had to be frame score 4 to be eligible for registration. The use of larger Angus in the grading up process sine then, probably of North American origin, has contributed to the breeds increase in size.
We are probably in danger of getting them too big and need to select for the more moderate sized animals or we lose the muscling for which those earlier MG's were noted.
Several of our matrons were over 1700lbs when they weaned their calves back in March and we recently weighed one of our cows at 804kgs with her heifer calf at 192kgs at 119days old That's 1772lbs and the calf at 423lbs
That's just on spring grass too.
Regarding colour of MG's. DNA work in Australia has found them to be homozygous black. The silver ones have 2 dilution genes and the chocolate coloured ones have one dilution gene.
Oh, and whilst the traditional origin was said to be a white shorthorn cow, rather than a roan, I have other evidence to suggest the original dam was actually a Galloway not a Shorthorn, and a more likely source of that dilution gene perhaps?
