Murray Greys?

[pfaubush]

I sold my milk cow and only have the Brown Swiss calf, now. He is bored and has started escaping. I strung hot wire this morning and he figured that out in a hurry, but I am considering another calf for company and as part of my plan to raise and butcher a calf a year. Does anyone have any experience with Murray Greys? There is a farm nearby that sells them, but until today, I had never even heard of them. How are they in comparison to some of the other beef cattle?

[TSYORK]

talk to agmantoo... if i remember correctly, he used a murray grey bull for his herd sire.

[agmantoo]

TSYORK is correct in that I have Murray Grey in my herd. I have only had one registered MG and some mixed MG and Angus crosses. The MG bull is prolific, producing 179 calves in ~2 years and added a lot to the offspring. His influence on the calves he sired was worth what I paid for him for certain. MG cattle are IMO great for forage only fed stock. They are docile and not flighty. My cows are small framed yet I have no issues with them calving. Initially the calves are rather small when born but quickly put on weight. I would prefer that the calves were all black but with the MG they come in gray, white and tan as well as black. I guess the best compliment that I could give to the breed is that I would buy another MG as the herd sire. The sale barn lists the non black calves as Charolais and I lose the Angus premium. They still sell good however.

[Farmer2B]

Really nice cattle, the only problem? They aren't black, so you loose that extra sale barn cash.

Easy calving, can go in heat or cold. Really nice cows, just not black. Can go on just grass pretty well and real fertile. Good temperament generally.

I find their meat quality is pretty nice, it isn't Wagyu of course, but it beats Angus.

[Ronney]

This link gives you a pretty honest background to the Murray Grey.

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/

Woops, that link didn't quite work as I intended - scroll down through the breeds on the LH side until you get to Murray Grey. Sorry.

Apart from bought-in beef/dairy, I've never had much to do with them but the crosses I've had did well and were of good temperment. Because we don't have a hang up about black cattle and are more concerned with breeding for easy calving, good growth rates, good temperment and good end product, this breed is becoming ever more popular. They take out many of the prizes at cattle shows and also meat competitions.

If you have a bent in this direction you could do much worse than opt for Murray Grey - as Agman's post indicates. Agman is into his cattle and does it properly (by my terms).

Cheers,
Ronnie

[Valmai]

My neighbour had a small MG herd, they were lovely big sturdy animals. Very calm, easy to work with and did well on poor(ish) pasture.