Winter 2017-2018

[Backbone Ranch]

We are due for another cold snap here in the next couple of days. It is supposed to be down to 11 degrees here on Wednesday. I cannot wait for spring! Our first calves are due on February 27th to AI sires, and then the calves sired by our herd bull are due to start hitting the ground a handful of days later. We do have one cow though that likes to calve right around 269 or 270 days gestation, so she will likely be the first to calve in mid-February.

This is a portion of our cow herd on winter pasture. It is primarily Plains Bluestem, but there are a lot of legumes that come up once spring rolls around.

These next two photos show some of the heifers that we retained from the 2017 spring calf crop. As a group, they are the best that we have raised. All of these are sired by our herd bull, BB Uncle Tony. They range from 8-10 months old in the photos.

And this photo shows a bull calf that will be weaned soon. His mother developed ovarian cysts in 2016 during the breeding season, so we gave her a shot of lute and she took soon after. This bull was born on June 3rd at 82 lbs. He too is sired by Tony.

And these are some 3 month old fall calves out of our first calf heifers. These are my favorite two calves. The bull had a 68 lb birth weight and the heifer had a 46 lb birth weight.

And this is one of our first calf heifers. She gave birth to a 58 lb heifer this past fall and is proving to be a great mother. She is a daughter of Tony.

I am really excited about the calves out of both of these cows. The first cow (8) is a rising 7 year old that we AIed to a bull called Monterey Marshall. Monterey Marshall is a dark Murray grey bull from the 1990s and was the sire of our best bull calf in 2015. The cow is a full sibling to our current herdsire, BB Uncle Tony. The second cow (6) is another 7 year old that has raised some stellar heifer calves for us in the past. She is bred to Tony currently.

And this last photo is of Tony. He is approaching 6 years old now. Right now, he is breeding our heifers for 2018 fall calves. Tony's mother, OK Sadie, is bred to calve this spring at the age of 15.

Thanks for letting me share!

 

[farmerjan]

Nice looking animals. Don't know much about Murray greys but they are pretty to look at. Good bodies, and cute calves. That bull calf is a big boy.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

That herd bull looks fertile as a rabbit..good crest and curly hair...good looking bunch...

 

[Caustic Burno]

Pretty bunch, I like that bull nuts guts and butts.

 

[Silver]

Fine looking cattle.

 

[Ky hills]

Nice looking cattle. :tiphat:

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I enjoy your cattle pictures.

 

[elkwc]

Nice cattle.

 

[Bestoutwest]

Really nice looking cattle. Thanks for sharing, shows what I should be striving for.

 

[JCcattle]

Nice looking cattle! I'm finding myself getting attracted to these Murray Gray cattle. Is there ever a bad looking one?!? Haven't seen one yet!

 

[gizmom]

Very nice cattle as always, what is the age of the 8 tag cow?

Gizmom

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Thank you everyone for the comments! We were especially happy with this last set of heifer calves. Six of the eight that we retained this year were daughters of Tony. He is becoming/ has become the backbone of our breeding program here. We have only been AIing a group of cows for three breeding seasons, but we have already found one bull that really does an exceptional job when crossed with the "Tony" line.

Gizmom- The 8 tag cow will be 7 years old in April. We bought her in the fall of 2015. So far, she has raised a really nice steer and an awesome heifer for us. She was AIed to this bull last year, and is due to calve in a little over a month.

And this was her 2017 heifer calf out of an AI sire. She was 84 lbs at birth and 516 lbs at weaning. She is pictured here at 8 1/2 months.

 

[creekdrive]

Love looking at pictures of your animals, they always look great!

 

[plumber_greg]

Sounds like you're breeding Tony to his daughters?
Do all Murry cattle have small birthweights, or are you using calving ease?
Like the cattle. gs

 

[elkwc]

Like your cattle. Thanks for the pics. Really like the dark heifer on the right in the front view. It has been real cold here. Have had our share. Tired of this global warming! LOL

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Elkwc- The dark heifer is one of my favorites too. She is 75% Murray Grey x 25% Angus. Her mother is 9 years old now and has produced replacement quality calves year after year; in fact, she is one of our top cows. As a first calf heifer, she weaned a 620 lb bull calf.

plumber_greg- Yes. We have bred Tony to a few of his daughters. In fact, the 733 bull is the offspring of one of those matings. Tony is the only mature bull on the premises currently, but we have one of his sons coming on, and we are trying to produce an AI sired bull that is worthy of being a herdsire, so that we can incorporate some different genetics into the herd.

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Sounds like you're breeding Tony to his daughters?
Do all Murry cattle have small birthweights, or are you using calving ease?
Like the cattle. gs

Just realized that I forgot to answer your second question. And yes, Murray Greys are known for their calving ease, but the calves grow well. This fall, we had the lowest birth weights that we have ever had, but at the same time, these are also the best fall calves that we have ever had out of first calf heifers. We are not purposefully selecting for calving ease sires. I have no problem retaining a bull calf that was slightly heavier at birth, as long as they are born unassisted. Tony himself had an 86 lb birth weight. The majority of his calves are born in the 75-85 lb realm. A few years back, a breeder nearby us used Murray Grey bulls over 100 commercial heifers. We received a call the following year, saying that he never had to pull a single calf! It was a first for him.