How do you decide what cattle to go with and where do you start??? We knew we wanted to go with a beef cattle breed as we weren't interested in milking cows. There are a lot of beef breeds to choose from out there, so I recommend doing your research on what would be suitable for your space, your climate, and your overall goals for your beef cows. We live in the Midwest (West Michigan), so we wanted something that could handle both warmer weather and cold, cold weather. Most of the beef farmers around here (not considering the dairy crosses) use Angus or Hereford cattle. Both are good beef options for this area, but we wanted something more unique that not everyone had. Enter the Murray Grey.
Murray Grey cattle originated in Australia and came to the United States in 1969. We liked the fact that they are hearty animals that have easy births and good mothering instincts. Murray Grey's can be light to dark silver (gray), dun (brown), or black. There is a red Murray Grey as well, but it is not recognized for registration. They were derived from the Angus breed and are naturally polled. This was also a good selling point for us, as we did not want to have horned cattle.
We brought home two cows and two heifers the winter of 2021. This was the beginning of our beef herd. We bought registered animals so that we could have the option to sell our calves for beef or for herd foundations. Our particular cattle are registered with the American Murray Grey Association. The original cows and heifers we bought were potentially already bred for that year. We ended up with three out of the four having calves that year. Of those we had two heifer calves and a bull calf. We kept one heifer (B & R Betty) and sold the other two as registered calves. We have only grown since then. This year we bred six full blooded Murray Grey cattle and one half.
I encourage you to look outside the standard options. There are perks to having what people know, but there is something exciting about having an option that is a little less known. We have gotten to meet so many people who had no idea what a Murray Grey was and now have also fallen in love with the breed.
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