Murray Greys

[lakading]

How do they handle cold winters?

 

[topsquar]

um very good they are basically a diluted Angus, they are a british breed in genetics, but developed in australia, the original shorthorn blue roan cow that was crossed with the Angus bull=blue is a dilute of black when you cross Angus with murrey gey you get a number of grey calves the modern murrey grey has very little shorthorn in its genetics, the grey cattlemans society of australia combined with the murrey grey society years ago, the grey cattle of australia based in tasmania where originally a Angus x charolaise these two societies combined so the genetics are anyones guese. there may be some debate on this ,but at the end of the day a murrey grey is just a grey angus.

 

[lakading]

I may have to get a couple. They are nice to look at.

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

um very good they are basically a diluted Angus, they are a british breed in genetics, but developed in australia, the original shorthorn blue roan cow that was crossed with the Angus bull=blue is a dilute of black when you cross Angus with murrey gey you get a number of grey calves the modern murrey grey has very little shorthorn in its genetics, the grey cattlemans society of australia combined with the murrey grey society years ago, the grey cattle of australia based in tasmania where originally a Angus x charolaise these two societies combined so the genetics are anyones guese. there may be some debate on this ,but at the end of the day a murrey grey is just a grey angus.

I doubt that they can be considered a "grey angus". The cross occurred a long time ago, they have their own genetics. If you consider the phenotype it is shorthorn more than the angus.and by the way....they do very well in the colder temps...as attested to by our canadian friends to the north! They are very adaptable!

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

Murray Grey International Association has info on breeders in Iowa,Illinois, Wisconsin, etc. ;-) :cboy:

 

[aplusmnt]

Do you get any color variations with them or if you use Grey on Grey do you always get a grey one? I know shorthorns can get some varied colors.

If you breed them to black to you get black or do they dilute like the Charolais do and give you a smokey?

 

[topsquar]

um very good they are basically a diluted Angus, they are a british breed in genetics, but developed in australia, the original shorthorn blue roan cow that was crossed with the Angus bull=blue is a dilute of black when you cross Angus with murrey gey you get a number of grey calves the modern murrey grey has very little shorthorn in its genetics, the grey cattlemans society of australia combined with the murrey grey society years ago, the grey cattle of australia based in tasmania where originally a Angus x charolaise these two societies combined so the genetics are anyones guese. there may be some debate on this ,but at the end of the day a murrey grey is just a grey angus.

I doubt that they can be considered a "grey angus". The cross occurred a long time ago, they have their own genetics. If you consider the phenotype it is shorthorn more than the angus.and by the way....they do very well in the colder temps...as attested to by our canadian friends to the north! They are very adaptable!

if you look at the history the blue roan shorthorn cow produced i think 11 or 9 calves, these calves where then crossed with Angus bulls ;-) and kept producing grey calves ;-) MG and Angus carcases are almost identical, they are exactly the same looking, same fram size same disposition only diference is color, oh and silver grey is a dilute of black, i actually prefer murrey greys then Angus, they handle heat better and for some reason there calves look like they have more muscle then the Angus, it may just be the shiny silver color though :lol:

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

Do you get any color variations with them or if you use Grey on Grey do you always get a grey one? I know shorthorns can get some varied colors.

If you breed them to black to you get black or do they dilute like the Charolais do and give you a smokey?

Yes, you get color variations. Two silvers will USUALLY give you silver ( the preferred color)but it is really a crapshoot.I have a brown herd bull,and a brown cow....she has had two black calves,twin brown bulls last year,and a silver bull this year...all out of the brown bull. ;-) :cboy:

 

[aplusmnt]

Curious if they are used much in rasing show calves? How they would cross with some of the Club bulls? Simmental bulls? Do the big shows have a class for them? What all do they cross good with?

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

Curious if they are used much in rasing show calves? How they would cross with some of the Club bulls? Simmental bulls? Do the big shows have a class for them? What all do they cross good with?

I do not know anything about the show circuit....but I do know that they will cross with anything and give you some fine calves.They would especially do well on continental cows. ;-) :cboy:

 

[KMacGinley]

In 1983 I was in the National Collegiate judging contest at Louisville and I saw a Murray Grey bull get loose and run under the belly of one of those big white Chi bulls that were so prevelant at the time. It was pretty funny.

 

[UG]

I'm curious, why are there two Murray Greay associations here in North America:

American Murray Grey Association
Murray Grey International Association

What precipitated the development of a second association? Over the years I have seen several breeds having more than one association but due to the high overhead costs typically they find common ground and merge.

What are the primary differences of the two associatons?

 

[UG]

Up until a few years ago ABS had a MG bull in their catalog. I don't recall his name. Does anyone remember who this bull is? Any thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of the bull.


The reason that I'm asking is that typically ABS maintains inventory on old bulls long after they have quit promoting him. If the bull is good, I may buy five straws to experiment with.

thanks

 

[OK Jeanne]

For a complete history of Murray Greys, there's no better
source than the website of the son of the founder of
the breed, i.e. Murray Sutherland's website in australia.
Here's a link:
http://www.michaelong.com.au/
Click on "history" for the whole story.

The Amer Murray Grey assoc decided, by their board
and a few large breeders in the NW usa, to start
charging a fee of $20 per cow per year to maintain
registered status. This was in the late 1990's.
They called it "whole herd reporting" and also
required weights, etc at certain times. It was
a disaster. Over half the membership
left and formed (in the year 2000) the
Murray Grey International Association: website:
http://www.murraygrey.org. After they lost so many
members, they back-tracked and allowed a one-time
registration fee for those that chose not to do "whole
herd reporting".

The international assoc is the largest organization
in North America, and also has members in Australia,
New Zealand, Brazil, and most recently, Costa Rica.
The cost to register animals and maintain a registered
herd is about 1/3 the cost that AMGA charges.
The MGIA has an annual
breeder directory, a couple of newsletters, the website
listing for all members, and an annual internet auction.
The membership is $20 us dollars per year---not bad.
Sales leads that come in from the website,etc are shared
with all the members in the newsletter or annual report.
The registrar for MGIA is Canadian Livestock Recording
Corp. They list all members, complete with animals &
pedigrees on their website:
http://www.clrc.ca/cgi-bin/query.cgi?_association=47

The AMGA recently approached MGIA about bringing the
members back into the AMGA. However, the non-usa members
of MGIA would not have been able to vote, and it would have
eventually tripled the cost to the MGIA members---so it
didn't sound like a very good deal. Some murray grey
breeders belong to both associations.

so that's the long/short of it.

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Jeanne you'd love to be here in Australia amongst the keen MG breeders. A few years back there was 2 groups here in Australia,one called Australian Greys and the other the Murray Grey Society. They have since amalgamated. Apparrently to get into the breed as a registered breeder it was very difficult. It was a very elite group.so another group was formed.
The same problem has happened with the South Devon breed here in Australia as what has happened in the US. Ourself plus a few other disgruntled breeders formed the South Devon association. We have no female inventory (each female is charged a fee to be able to register an animal from her in a particular year) Valuable SD genetics were being and still are being lost by those that still are members of the society. Many persons would register anything out of a female that has her fee paid for the year. Our association has a once only fee. The female is registered for life. We are members of the Brahman Breeders Association as well who have registered for life scheme. We would be members of the Hereford association only they have the ridiculous inventory too.
Keep up the breed promotion Jeanne