The Murray Grey Bull

[OK Jeanne]

I have not been keeping up-to-date with this forum for the past year it seems...we've been extremely busy
with off-farm(and on-farm) work plus caring for our elderly parents.

Anyhow, I saw a MG bull thread so went out to take some photos. Three of our bulls are shown below; a fourth one
is in a pasture about 7 miles away, so he got left out (OK Ben).

First 3 photos are of OK Boomer. He has all 6 "stars" for Genestar tenderness; so far has had excellent calves for
us:

Next is OK Levi. He is a small bull; appox 3 1/2 to 4 frame and 2 yrs old. He had a very light birthweight
and we have put him with 7 heifers this week. He also has all the tenderness genes:

And last is OK Pedro. He is a yearling and we are not using him this year - but thought he had enough
promise to not castrate and may use him next year. By inheirtance he also should have all the
tenderness genes:

I also got a couple of pics of my two almost-favorite cows --- but this is a bull thread.

 

[3waycross]

Jeanne it sure is good to have you back. You have sure dotted the i's and crossed the T's on this thread. Nice bulls!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[waihou]

Good to see some more of your stock OK Jeanne, you had better put up the MG cow pictures on another thread!
You sure have put the muscle back where it belongs! Our NZ MG's are begining to get taller but less muscled. I must go and look up those bulls of yours breeding!

On the tenderness testing, before we got lost with the next family of 56 genes we were up to 8 stars maximum for tenderness.
Obviously different gene testing procedures. I have one or two 8 star tenderness animals, but the latest round of results is not as easy to understand!

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Hey OK Jeanne - welcome back! Love to see your cattle. Thanks for posting again.
For the newbies, OK J finishes out her steers on grass and does a great job of it.

 

[OK Jeanne]

Thanks for your comments 3way, waihou and Jeanne S/V!

Regarding GeneStar: We did extensive testing of our cow herd and bulls when this first came out --- and retested
over and over as new gene pairs were validated for tenderness. But after they stopped giving you actual results
and instead reported some kind of numerical system(meaningless to me) we just quit them. In addition, they no
longer will just do a tenderness panel. We wanted to know if the animal actually had the individual gene factors...not
what someone else's interpretation of what the factors should represent. It's as though someone in their head office
all of a sudden thought "we've got to change the reports so they look more like EPDs"....nutty!!! One of the biggest
selling points of their business plan was (I thought) the fact that you were getting scientific results, as in a blood
test, rather than some numbers based on honesty of producer self-reporting. At any rate, after we got reports on
everyone covering the 3 tenderness gene pairs, and they changed their system - we just quit them. When our bull
and cow has exactly the same score, then we know what their calf's score will be.

 

[cmf1]

Jeanne,
when I was considering breeds that I wanted to get into I came across a book titled "Murray Greys, Australia's Own Beef Cattle".
After reading it as well and tons of stuff about other breeds and talking with different producers, I chose the MG's.
If you've ever seen that book the front cover pic sums up what I wanted to try an achieve as well as other "Grey"
features.
You've got a couple of cows on your donor page that are to a tee what I'm trying for. (Petunia, Lotus, Yikes them are fine!)
More recent stock I'm seeing around seems to be chasing bigger frame scores and ending up with leggy cattle.
I hope I can find an affordable equation to raise some "old school" before I give up on the breed. I don't know if they can be tweaked back or not, but I want to shoot for that. I really like the breed , and the crosses have been way good.

 

[Wisteria Farms]

I'll look for another post on the cows as I think I have some "contenders" for what you're looking for and will also post some pictures. They're not for sale, just some of my favorites. I too do not like "leggy" cattle (atleast not in the MG breed). But I also don't like to go too far on the muscling. Nothing against OK Jeannes bulls... she's proven time and again that she's got GREAT animals, but I don't want my MG to remind me of a Belgian Blue. Please don't let that statement start a firestorm... its just my opinion (not saying I'm right).

 

[cmf1]

Jeanne, Can you post more pics of Levi?
What's his breeding?

 

[ANAZAZI]

I'll look for another post on the cows as I think I have some "contenders" for what you're looking for and will also post some pictures. They're not for sale, just some of my favorites. I too do not like "leggy" cattle (atleast not in the MG breed). But I also don't like to go too far on the muscling. Nothing against OK Jeannes bulls... she's proven time and again that she's got GREAT animals, but I don't want my MG to remind me of a Belgian Blue. Please don't let that statement start a firestorm... its just my opinion (not saying I'm right).

It would not hurt anyone if more MG:s reminded of Square meaters.

 

[OK Jeanne]

Jeanne, Can you post more pics of Levi?
What's his breeding?

I'll try to get a few more pics to post. Here's the link to his pedigree:

http://www.clrc.ca/cgi-bin/extended_ped ... ciation=47

Balmoral Elation is shown once - but also appears two more times further back through Suzie Q and Mr. Outback.

We have used the Eliz MacArthur Institute in Australia for testing for the a-mannosidosis gene and the double-
muscle gene for any bull semen that we are thinking of buying or thinking of collecting. OK Boomer does not
have either gene. We are thinking of collecting him. I think the double-muscle gene can appear in several different breeds, but may be more common in some like the Belgian Blue. Boomer's calves so far have been in the 60 thru 70 pound range.

 

[mitch2]

Here is a pic of Junior he is 6 years old, he has done very well for us, and I don't really want him to go. But, I have put him up for sale, when we brought him home he weighted in at 1960#. He is been sound every day of his life, docile, even tempered, but we know he is boss in his domain. This pic was just recently taken.

I love to hear other's people take on him!\

I have purchased a new bull and I am very excited to get to use him later this year.

Michele

 

[cmf1]

Mitch,
Man it's hard to tell what he is like from just one so so pic.
He's definitely got volume.
Did he get that from the bucket in front of him?
What kind of frame score does he have?
I'd like to see some more pics of him from different angles and know what kind of BW's he's been throwing, and his bloodlines.
I'm not much of a judge, especially of what works for you, but I'd sure like to see more of what this tank is all about.
He looks like a meatwagon to say the least.

 

[OK Jeanne]

Here is a pic of Junior he is 6 years old, he has done very well for us, and I don't really want him to go. But, I have put him up for sale, when we brought him home he weighted in at 1960#. He is been sound every day of his life, docile, even tempered, but we know he is boss in his domain. This pic was just recently taken.

I love to hear other's people take on him!\

I have purchased a new bull and I am very excited to get to use him later this year.

Michele

I like your bull Michele....beefy! I suspect he has more than a couple of breeding seasons left in him and will
make a great herd bull for another farm if you are letting him go. We used a previous sire, Silverdawn Jumbo,
until his demise at either 9 or 10 yrs old..can't remember when he went to bull heaven.

I mailed an envelope to you on Thursday.
regards,
OK Jeanne

 

[mitch2]

Mitch,
Man it's hard to tell what he is like from just one so so pic.
He's definitely got volume.
Did he get that from the bucket in front of him?
What kind of frame score does he have?
I'd like to see some more pics of him from different angles and know what kind of BW's he's been throwing, and his bloodlines.
I'm not much of a judge, especially of what works for you, but I'd sure like to see more of what this tank is all about.
He looks like a meatwagon to say the least.

He gets a scoop of feed every day or two while he is penned in the corral for about three months while we separate him from the cows. Or anytime we like to keep him occupied for a bit! He is an aggressive eater, and then laid-back and mello. His calves seem to get his temperament as well.

We have had him since he was 14 months old, we lost one calf during calving, heaviest calf born was 105# , birth weights generally run in 70's.

Thanks Carol! Got the paperwork! Will send updated pic's soon!

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Levi is now 4 years old. His calves range from 62-82 pounds at birth. His bull calves wean in the 600 pound realm. Last year he bred all 15 of his cows in 35 days. His calves are born very lively. Below is a photo of Levi at 3 years old. He weighed 1640 lbs.

Below is one of his 4 month old bull calves from last year.

Levi's heifers look really good this year. They are very thick and have good length.