Looking Back- Our Murray Greys

[Backbone Ranch]

During the past few days, during a bit of down time, I have been looking through some photos that I took a few years ago. We purchased our first Murray Greys almost 5 years ago, and our first Murray Grey calves hit the ground in the spring of 2012. I had forgotten how nice some of the calves were. I thought that I would share some of the photos that I was digging through. The calves below were born in 2012.
This bull calf was the 3rd purebred Murray Grey bull to be born on the place. His dam was a second calver at the time, and he was 85 lbs at birth. His weaning weight was 642 lbs, and he is shown here at 6 months of age.

This next bull is 75% Murray Grey x 25% Angus. His dam was a first calf heifer. He weighed 616 lbs at weaning. He is pictured at 7 months.

This heifer was born on March 6, 2012. Her dam was 6 1/2 years old at the time. This little heifer weighed under 70 lbs at birth and weighed 500 lbs at weaning. She is smaller in frame, but has raised a tremendous bull calf already. She is due to have an AI sired calf this March.

This heifer was the fastest growing heifer of our 2012 calf crop. She weighed 584 lbs at weaning as was out of a 5 year old cow. This heifer produced one of our best bull calves back in 2014. She is pictured here at 6 months.

These two photos are of a purebred Murray Grey 6 month old bull calf. He was 86 lbs at birth and weighed 682 lbs at weaning. He is our current herdsire, BB Uncle Tony. His dam was 9 years old when he was born.

This last photo shows one of our first calf heifers in the fall of 2012. The heifer calf is her's, but the bull calf belongs to another heifer. Both of the first calf heifers we had would allow both calves to nurse off of them. This cow in particular has done a great job for us over the last few years. She has raised an orphan bull calf in 2014 along with her own bull calf.

 

[Backbone Ranch]

These calves were from our 2013 calf crop. The majority of these calves are half siblings.
This heifer was the 1st heifer calf of the season. She was 86 lbs at birth, a big girl. I do not recall what her weaning weight was, I have it written down somewhere. She is pictured here as a 5 month old.

This heifer was 78 lbs at birth and out of a 2008 cow. We ended up selling this heifer, but she looks really nice here. Her full sister who was born in 2014 was one of our best heifer calves of the calf crop.

This bull calf was the best of our 2013 bull group. His birth weight was 78 lbs, but he grew out to be over 600 lbs by weaning. He has looked like a bull since the day he was born. He was sold to a breeder out of Oklahoma, and I believe that he is still used there. He is pictured here at 6 months.

This bull had a 62 lb birth weight and was out of a 2003 model. He weighed 584 lbs at weaning; we ended up castrating him because he didn't fill out as we well as we had hoped. Consequently, we put him into our beef program and finished him.

This bull calf is pictured next to his dam at 6 months of age. He weighed 672 lbs at weaning. He has grown into a very nice bull and is currently working at a ranch in Oklahoma; they are very pleased with his first calves.

This last photo shows a 7 month old heifer calf out of a 2008 cow. She was 78 lbs at birth and has turned out to be a very nice individual.

 

[anewcomer]

These pictures should go under the thread titled "What do quality cattle look like".

 

[ez14]

Do you have any idea how they would do in the north

 

[ez14]

These pictures should go under the thread titled "What do quality cattle look like".

Yes they should :nod:

 

[Backbone Ranch]

These photos are of our 2014 calves. We had a handful of calves sired by BB Uncle Tony that year, and the rest were sired by our other herd bull.
This first photo shows a first calf heifer with her 6 month old heifer calf. The cow is 50% Murray Grey/ 50% Guernsey. The calf is 75% Murray Grey. The Guernsey cross cow is one of my favorite cows; she will adopt an orphan calf, produce a lot of quality milk, and she maintains her condition while doing so. So far, she has raised 2 calves, both were silver heifers. It will be interesting to see if she ever throws a spotted calf.

This was the only heifer calf that BB Uncle Tony sired that year; he only bred a handful that year. This heifer weighed 65 lbs at birth and is shown with her 11 1/2 year old mother. The heifer is 6 months of age.

Another photo of the same heifer.

This photo shows a 7 month old heifer. She was born on President's Day at 76 lbs. She was one of the best heifer calves that was born on our ranch in 2014. We kept her as a replacement.

This bull calf is pictured with his 11 year old dam. We castrated him and put him into our beef program. He will be processed this spring.

This 6 month old bull calf is pictured with his 10 year old dam. We ended up cutting this bull because we felt that he could have had a better back end. He too will be processed this spring.

This last photo shows a bull sired by BB Uncle Tony that we kept intact. He was 8 months old at the time. He was out of a first calf heifer and weighed 578 lbs at weaning. He is currently working at a ranch in Oklahoma after we sold him this past summer.

We are very eager to see this spring's calf crop. We will have a handful of AI sired calves, calves from BB Uncle Tony, and then calves from two other sires out of cows that we purchased this past fall. We should have around 30 calves; it will be very busy around here come February 27th. I am really looking forward to it.

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Do you have any idea how they would do in the north

Thank you. Murray Greys do just fine up north. I know of some breeders in Colorado, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana that raise Murray Greys and are very happy with them. In fact, during the 1970s, there were a bunch of Murray Greys up in Montana, and they thrived up there.

 

[ez14]

Do you have any idea how they would do in the north

Thank you. Murray Greys do just fine up north. I know of some breeders in Colorado, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana that raise Murray Greys and are very happy with them. In fact, during the 1970s, there were a bunch of Murray Greys up in Montana, and they thrived up there.

Thanks i might have to look in to that some day

 

[texast]

Awesome herd of cattle over the years!! That should be some good beef you produced just looking at the calves.

 

[Son of Butch]

A nice presentation. Thank You for posting.

 

[elkwc]

Nice cattle. To me color don't matter if they are good cattle.Too many people are color blind. If cattle or horses aren't a certain color they can't see the quality or lack of. Too many base their judgement on color and fat.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Really nice looking cattle! I am totally color-blind as far as quality, although I have my preferences.

 

[ez14]

I would appreciate it if you would post some pics on viewtopic.php?f=8&t=101893

 

[Bestoutwest]

Those are some really nice looking cattle.

 

[boondocks]

beauts, as always. yours are some of my favorites on here, for sure

 

[Wisteria Farms]

Nice job Hays! As always... love Tony. We'll start dropping next month...can't wait!