Murray Greys down under in NZ

[waihou]

High summer down here and our local agricultural Show was held over the weekend.
Here is our cow and calf, she won the All breeds cow with calf at foot class, beat a 2 year old Simmental. She is a 6 year old with her 5th calf. The calf was born 4th August and on 15th Jan weighed 313kgs- about 690lbs? He has been gaining at 3.54lbs/day since birth.
She has her faults but can sure convert grass into beef-no hard feed for either of them. We winter outside on hay, silage and pasture. We had 8 animals entered and all came home with a placing.

Here is a smart (we think!) July born heifer, also still on her mother, which won the heifer calf class. She weighed 626lbs on 15 Jan.

No fancy preparations here, just a shampoo at home the day before and a bum wash on the morning of the show. All very natural condition straight off the paddock.

Just for a bit of added interest-we had a calf born on 12th Jan- he is rather out of season but his mum has calved late due to a lost calf 4 years ago and is coming back towards our normal calving time of July/Aug a month at a time. There is always a market for an out of season calf!
Here he is at 12 hours old-he weighed 99lbs and is her 8th calf.

 

[OK Jeanne]

Such a beautiful bunch of Murrays! I'd like to have a pasture full of cows that looked like
your show-winning cow! She has a great looking udder...and what a rear end on her
bull calf! Great gains on the calves. I think all shows should require a
slick finish on the entries----with hair all fluffed up and sprayed, I think it is impossible
for a judge to really evaluate body shape of the animal.

 

[xbred]

nice cattle i've never seen a murry other than in photos...are theyin any way related to charolais? just asking because of the color..

 

[CKC1586]

Congratulations! I agree on the slick shear shows, never have heard of anyone grilling up some hair! Those are some beautiful Murray Greys, good job!

 

[waihou]

We can't do anything but 'slick' at our summer shows-their summer coats are too short!

No relation to Charolais!
These are of 'British breed' origins, originally a cross between a Milking Shorthorn cow x Angus bull which happened by chance in 1905 in Australia.

All the Australian and NZ sourced Murray Greys were bred up from Angus, using pure bred MG bulls. I believe the USA and Canadian ones may have been founded on some other beef breeds at the start.

OK Jeanne you have some wonderful cows over there too!

Here is a better view of the pair which I was sent by an onlooker today.

 

[sigpros]

Those are some very fine looking cattle!

 

[Keren]

Nice greys. Like em all, particularly the two cows ;-)

 

[Baldie Maker]

nice set of mg's. Stout bull with a nice looking momma cow. I'd take em!

 

[MO_cows]

Good looking cattle. They look like the larger end of the Murray Grey breed, is that right? I like the idea of showing them in a natural state, never seen it before except with Corriente cattle.

Recently attended the National Western Stock Show in Denver and saw some cattle that were so fat it doesn't seem possible they can have a breeding "career" ahead of them.

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

Very nice I really like the silver MG's I especially like your bull... just not in the last 2 photos legs too far apart, makes his back look swayed & doesn't do him any justice at all.

 

[Australian]

Nice Murray Greys. There's a fair few shown around our New England region. There is a few in the paddocks round here,mainly on the smaller hobby blocks of ground.What part of New Zealand are you in?
Colin

 

[waihou]

Australian Colin, we are in the lower North Island region, 90kms north of Wellington.
We could be classed as hobby farmers, by most Australians, running 30 registered and performance recorded breeding cows plus young stock and bulls on 70 acres!
Main outlet is yearling bulls for dairy heifer mating, plus quiet females for Lifestyle hobby farmers to eat or breed from!