Backbone Ranch
Well-known member
Our first calf heifers started calving a little over a week ago. The first four calves have ranged from 58 to 70 lbs, and we have four more left to go. Seeing these calves hit the ground has me excited for our spring 2018 calving season; we have a handful of cows in calf to some heritage Murray Grey sires. I thought that I would share pictures of some of the bulls that we are expecting calves from next spring.
JOPA Elation Power- This bull was the 1989 Grand Champion bull at the National Murray Grey Show. Much of our herd goes back to him. We had a heifer sired by him this year that was born 2 weeks early at 62 lbs. Right now, she is one of our growthiest heifers. We currently have two cows bred to him.
Spectrum Kenton- This bull came from a great breeding program out of Ohio. He was born in 1992. He is the grandsire of our very best cow. We are hoping to instill some of that quality into our herd by breeding to him. We have not yet had any calves out of this bull, but we have one cow bred to him currently.
Ballee Thumbs Up- This is another bull that we have not bred to before. He was born in 1998 and is originally from New Zealand. I know of at least four breeders here in the US that have used him with much success. They have retained many of his sons and daughters for their own herds.
Monterey Marshall- This bull was born in Australia in 1989. We have only had one calf from him to date, but that particular bull calf was the best bull in our 2015 calf crop. We are wanting to add some darker pigment back into our herd, and we are hoping to accomplish that with this bull. He is bred to one of our better cows who is actually a full sibling to our current herdsire, BB Uncle Tony. I am really excited to see this calf.
MCC Trigger's Champion- This last bull combines two very high powered Murray Grey sires in one pedigree, Maneroo Gladiator and Parknook Pelion. The photo of this bull was taken during the winter, so his scrotal circumference doesn't look very large. The first calf we had out of this bull was an 80 lb heifer born last year. She is currently one of our nicest yearling heifers.
Our very first AI calves hit the ground in 2015, so we are still very much in the "experimental phase", trying to figure out which bulls in our tank work best with our cows. Most of the bulls that we are using have been deceased for 15-30+ years, so we have very little information on them other than a few pictures and some old literature. As a whole, we have been very pleased with our AI calves from these heritage sires.
JOPA Elation Power- This bull was the 1989 Grand Champion bull at the National Murray Grey Show. Much of our herd goes back to him. We had a heifer sired by him this year that was born 2 weeks early at 62 lbs. Right now, she is one of our growthiest heifers. We currently have two cows bred to him.
Spectrum Kenton- This bull came from a great breeding program out of Ohio. He was born in 1992. He is the grandsire of our very best cow. We are hoping to instill some of that quality into our herd by breeding to him. We have not yet had any calves out of this bull, but we have one cow bred to him currently.
Ballee Thumbs Up- This is another bull that we have not bred to before. He was born in 1998 and is originally from New Zealand. I know of at least four breeders here in the US that have used him with much success. They have retained many of his sons and daughters for their own herds.
Monterey Marshall- This bull was born in Australia in 1989. We have only had one calf from him to date, but that particular bull calf was the best bull in our 2015 calf crop. We are wanting to add some darker pigment back into our herd, and we are hoping to accomplish that with this bull. He is bred to one of our better cows who is actually a full sibling to our current herdsire, BB Uncle Tony. I am really excited to see this calf.
MCC Trigger's Champion- This last bull combines two very high powered Murray Grey sires in one pedigree, Maneroo Gladiator and Parknook Pelion. The photo of this bull was taken during the winter, so his scrotal circumference doesn't look very large. The first calf we had out of this bull was an 80 lb heifer born last year. She is currently one of our nicest yearling heifers.
Our very first AI calves hit the ground in 2015, so we are still very much in the "experimental phase", trying to figure out which bulls in our tank work best with our cows. Most of the bulls that we are using have been deceased for 15-30+ years, so we have very little information on them other than a few pictures and some old literature. As a whole, we have been very pleased with our AI calves from these heritage sires.
