Murray Greys from NZ

[waihou]

Here he is, I post these photos with a little trepidation, after reading some of the comments about other folks bulls! However as I said before, it is his hidden attributes as much as his physical and I believe he is basically structurally correct, perhaps a little short in the back length, we'll see how he grows out. Initially we chose him for mating with our heifers, the dark grey daughters of senior bull Xtra

They are taken within a few hours of his arrival from a 24 hour journey-with two unloads enroute. In very natural travel stained condition.
A major life experience for a little bull on his own, who had been happily grazing with a mob of 30 bulls out on the hills for the winter, since weaning in March.

If any MG breeders are interested he can be looked up on http://www.murraygreys.co.nz then EBV enquiry then herdbook number 0624060150

 

[OK Jeanne]

Such an interesting thread!

There were a great many people in the AMGA that did not
want to pay for the EPD system being used by just a
few members. I recall talking to one of the board members
at the time, pleading for them to install a two-tier
system, because I knew they were going to have a mass
defection. Now, if they had actually involved the
membership, and allowed a vote(by mail, internet or
in person)---and it had won, then we would have
probably just gone along with it and tried to manage
the increased cost. But no-----it was their way or the
highway, so many of us took the highway and formed
MGIA, which is now the largest MG association in North
America. I suspect you folks in New Zealand were
democratic enough to actually take a vote. I should
remind our community that New Zealand is a comparatively
small country, with much of the land mass unsuitable for
cattle. Therefore 60 breeders and around 1400 females
registered is not an insubstantial number. It is my understanding that many of
the dairy farms use MG bulls
over their dairy cows in order to get a
better carcass on the calves.

I won't mention the breed, but once I saw a photo of
a bull(a view from his side) that had top top top EPD
scores. Then I saw a photo of him head-on----the
poor animal had the width of a Twiggie(for you youngsters,
that is the width of a fence post). Evidently his
semen was selling like hot-cakes until this photo became
widely distributed. So Waihou, it's a good thing that you
only use EPDs as one factor, and really take a look at the
animal. Some people just order semen out of a catalogue
strictly based on EPDs---unbelieveable!

Yes, the photo of the bull I posted on this thread is of
Silverdawn Jumbo. He is registered with both AMGA
and MGIA. We don't have EPDs on him; but we do have
actual, real numbers recorded. His heifer calves are
typically between 65 and 75 lbs BW. Bull calves are
usually 70 to 80. We have never had a calf out of him
that was over 80 lbs. His offspring have a an excellent
growth rate, and we have raised enough beef from him
to know that fact personally.


Jumbo has a 6 "star" score on the Bovigen tenderness
gene test. Here in the USA, Bovigen will not use any
newly discovered tenderness factor until it is validated
by the independent cattle group(I forgot the name!)
by using shear force tests. Therefore, there are no
8"stars" available here as yet. I am sure we will hear
a big announcement when they do put it out for the
public. Bovigen is the only one licensed here to use the
GeneStar calpastatin test - the calpain tests are in the
public domain and not patented.

Here's one of Jumbo's sons:

He also has 6 "stars" on tenderness.

Here's one of Jumbo's grandsons, sired by JOPA Elation Power:

The above youngster, Felix, was born March 27, 2006, so
the photo shows him at about 13 months old. He also has
a 6 "star" rating for tenderness genes. His birthweight was
68 lbs and his adj 200 day weight was 596. Felix was sold
in May 07 to a farm in Missouri that put him with some
females to breed---they are going to direct-market
beef.

I really don't think we have lost bull sales(or heifers) because
of not recording EPDs. We really don't have many bulls
that have been for sale -- most of the males are used for
beef steers. We actually have found that most potential
buyers are glad to have real numbers in our records---but
again it is true that lots of people have been taught and
have studied the EPD system and believe it to be valuable to them. However I would suppose that not
many really use it as the only selection factor.

 

[OK Jeanne]

Here's another photo of Felix:

 

[waihou]

Thanks for your input Jeanne, yes it is interesting comparing the way different countries do things!

Felix is a beauty alright, as is the son of Jumbo, great muscling for a bull his age.
You are right about many MG bulls here being bred for the dairy industry for mating dairy heifers, so low birth weights are very important to us, plus correctly shaped, smooth shoulders!

Murray Greys are very much a minority beef breed over here. Angus and Hereford being the most numerous, probably followed by Simmentals and South Devons. Probably Herefords are the most popular beef breed for using over dairy cows, specifically holsteins as the "white faced black' calf is much in demand for both steer fattening and as a beef suckler dam.

The idea of real numbers or 'raw data' has to some extent been made obsolete over here when we have the main Beef Bull Sale of all Breeds in May.
Only EBV's are on display above the animals stalls. The fact that raw data can be a bit meaningless in a bull prepared for show as against one coming direct of a grass only trial was put up as the reason.

A lot of the bulls coming forward from all the vendors for the elite 2 year old Expo sale are now coming from trials where they are run together from weaning in May the year before and come direct to the sale in paddock condition, after selection for soundness, temperament etc.

At one stage the NZMG Society had 2 different recording systems going, with different charges-one was a within herd system which is all there was when we first joined back in the early '80s. This was superceded by the International Breedplan system which it was optional to join, and cost more per cow. Hence the very few who recorded with it. There still are two systems but no new herds will be accepted on to the within herd one from now on. It is still optional to record or not and there has been no increase in fees, I believe the MG Society charges are very reasonable if not a little cheaper than some other beef breeds. With so few members neither group could hope to stand alone economically.

 

[gberry]

Those are good looking bulls Jeanne and I know from other pics I've seen of your cattle that you have excellent animals. It's also obvious that you are an excellent grazier with very high quality pasture. I'd love to have results like yours here, but haven't got the requisite skills yet.

When I was speaking lost sales, I wasn't speaking about your operation. You are obviously a great promoter/marketer of your cattle. My point is that it is going to be hard to get a commercial cattleman to consider using MGs over angus, red angus, herford, etc if they feel they will have more predictable results with one of the other breeds. I think EPDs give cattlemen some confidence in their choice of bull that visual appraisal alone cannot.

Of course results are what we are after and after seeing the offspring of Jumbo, I doubt it is too hard to convince folks to try him out.