Wattyvale Murray Greys in Smithton, Tasmania | Agricultural cooperative

Wattyvale Murray Greys

Locality: Smithton, Tasmania

Address: Bass Highway 7330 Smithton, TAS, Australia

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24.01.2022 A few of the heifers and cows and calves

24.01.2022 PBR N8 born this morning by BEA K26 out of ETB C993. Nice silver heifer calf that should grow into a good breeder

23.01.2022 the yamba elapse calves that we have on the ground are looking very promising hopefully the rest of the cows to calve later with have a simalar resuylts and should grow out and make either excellent breeders or briliant bulls to breed from

22.01.2022 PBR k15 PBR K6 with PBR N4 at foot bull calf on right hand side BEA D16 with PBR N7 at foot bull calf left hand side

22.01.2022 Not just an ad. #BeefTheGreatest

22.01.2022 PBR N9 born last night sire BEA K26 out of PBR G2. Another small heifer calf that should grow into another future breeder

21.01.2022 Not ‘just’ an ad. #BeefTheGreatest

21.01.2022 Hi guys and girls...my name is Caron Laing and together with my husband, Marcus and fellow circular head community members, andrew arnold, rob wright,the lions ...club, glen phillips and many others from around Tasmania. (I apologize to anyone whos name is missing but it would take me all night to type everyone who is helping ) We r helping to organise hay for the drought stricken farmers in NSW...we have the donated hay, the donated trucks and the drivers donating their time What we could do with is a hand with fuel. If there is any possibility of sourcing some at a discounted rate or better it would help us get the hay to where it is needed most. An idea is if anyone has a sign it can be attached to the back of the truck for a donation of fuel, food actually anything that would help these poor buggers out...Marcus can b contacted on 0428522364. Thank you for your time See more

20.01.2022 PBR N10 born this morning out of PBR L7 by BEA K26. Nice small heifer calf. BEA K26 sure is a low birthweight sire.

19.01.2022 PBR L1 and PBR L2

19.01.2022 This drought is one of the worst since 1902 and its far from over yet. What people are screaming for is action because they are doing it tough, really tough. Y...esterdays R U Aware We Care fundraising concert raised $40k for local farmers in need. But its more than that, its also about the message it sends to Gladys Berejiklian and Malcolm Turnbull that we want you to get together for a summit and come up with a decisive package that deals with the desperate situation that is before us. This drought is as bad as any flood, fire or cyclone or any other natural disaster. We need to look after these people in their time of crisis. See more

17.01.2022 For Sale PBR M2. Registered Grey bull 20 months of age. Low birth and exceptional temperament. Good in the feet and excellent structure. Half brother to PBR K13 same sire. For pricing or anymore info please private message

16.01.2022 PBR K13. Have a look at the meat in this bloke. Just full of it and hes putting that into his calves!!!

14.01.2022 Angus x Murray Grey steer calf by K13 6 1/2 months old and full meat just like his sire

09.01.2022 PBR K13 and commercial calves with calves sired by K13. Calves range from 4-7 months of age

09.01.2022 PBR K13. Have a look at the meat in this bloke. Just full of it and he’s putting that into his calves!!!

08.01.2022 Wynyard Show 2012

08.01.2022 The late 2016 calves and the April/May 2017 calves along with the cows and Stud sire BEA K25

06.01.2022 A shared post from Mark McKenzie originally written & posted by Anna Fisher :::::QUESTIONS QUESTIONS ???? Thank you Anna Do we place too much emphasis on EB...Vs? What happened to good old stockmanship? I dont understand how it has got to the point where EBVs have gone from a tool to assist in breeding to a table of numbers that is has become the priority when selecting animals. As I read through Beef and Lamb Genetics N.Zs tools for selecting bulls they suggest there are 5 important steps for finding the best bull for your operation. Step one is to find your high level farm operational goal. Step two is to now find a bull breeder who has similar breeding objectives and ask them for genetic trend graphs and percentile band tables. You then need to choose from the 20 or so traits on their EBVs and select the ones most important to you and compare them to the breed averages. Step four is to make sure your bull is sound enough to serve a cow and use the Beef Class Structural Assessment system. Finally step 5 is to get a vet to give your bull a pre-mating bull breeding evaluation. Not anywhere in these tools for selecting a bull do I read anything on the importance of the type of animal I am selecting. A good old stockman would tell you that these tools might be useful but there is no point in having a high performing animal if the environment you are putting it in wont support it. They would say its not just about how well an animal performs in a good season but also how well it can sustain itself in a very poor season. Nowhere in these 5 steps does it say if you want your cow herd to perform well then select a type of bull that will breed cows that suit your environment. So what in my view is a good type of cow that in my experience works well on hill country? Its a cow that has constitution. This is a much underrated trait that there is no EBV for. A cow with good constitution will come out the other side of the winter in better order so therefore should calve in better order, milk better and get back in calf quicker because she has a better body condition score. A cow with good constitution will have great natural width (not width achieved from feeding), she will have a good spring of rib, a good barrel and she will have natural depth of body. Some of you may disagree but I believe she will have strength of bone. We dont eat bone but meat also doesnt hang off a coat hanger. In my experience the cows that come through a winter in poorest condition are refined types of animals that are fine in the bone. You may also disagree that the animal should have a strong head and wide muzzle. They say you dont eat the head but the head is a very good indicator of what the body of the animal will look like. I have never seen a really good bodied animal with constitution that has a long narrow head or vice versa. The muzzle is also important as cows need a big strong mouth to eat grass or tussock and sometimes push through the snow to get at it. A good skin and coat are also pretty good traits to have because if the animal isnt using up energy to keep warm then that has to be a good thing. My opinion is that I do not want to disregard EBVs and the improvements we have made in some traits. I also dont want to suggest that Beef and Lamb Genetics NZ dont think constitution and type arent important to them but I so often read bull selection tools like these and I have been to workshops on how to select a bull and it is all focused on genetic improvement using EBVs. When was the last time you read something or attended a workshop that taught you some of the good old fashioned ways to select a bull? I believe all this EBV selection stuff has been rammed down our throats so much that we have forgotten that they were only ever meant to be a tool to help us. Now they seem to be the number one driver when breeding cattle. Its got to the point where I am asking myself are we cattle breeders who know what a good animal looks like or are we mathematicians who add numbers together and think we are improving our cow herds? We often hear about this genetic improvement we are making and I have even seen graphs but is it actually genetic improvement or is it genetic change? I say it is genetic change. I read the other day that weaning weight in commercial herds in the USA has not improved over the last 30 years despite their genetic trend graphs showing the opposite. Beef and Lamb Genetics N.Zs Max Tweedie says improving growth is the best way to get the biggest bang for your buck. I dont doubt that but this wont come without a cost. We can all improve our growth rates and I dont doubt that EBVs with high accuracies do work. The problem is that we need the environment to support this extra growth we are selecting. If your herd of cows graze under a centre pivot then maybe selecting for high growth will work for you but do those high performing types of animals have the ability to hack it in a tough winter in the high country? To metaphorically put it would you buy a high performing Ferrari to drive round your farm? No you would have a good old reliable Toyota Hilux or something similar. The EBVs for growth also dont tell you the type of growth. We know in our experience of finishing steers that you can have two steers that are 600kg, one steer can be prime and ready to go now or he could go to a bigger weight as well, then the other steer although the same weight might need another 150kg to grade. The later type of animal is one you do not want because if things get tough you cant get out of them easily. EBVs can be a great tool but there is too much emphasis placed on them and the reality of them is not publicised enough. EBVs are all about outputs they do not tell you the inputs required. Its like doing your books and working out your income for the year but forgetting about your expenses. You might actually find that an animal with an average set of growth EBVs may perform better than those with high growth EBVs as they might be the type of animal that suits your country better. You also have to be very aware that EBVs can change a lot for one animal as well. While those that promote the use of EBVs would tell you yes one animals EBVs can change but if you bought 20 bulls with that same EBV than the average of them all wouldnt change the reality is the one bull you are buying may still change. The big statement Beef and Lamb Genetics NZ are claiming after their trial is that EBVs work! Whilst this is possibly right they also havent told us the accuracies of those EBVs that are working and they also havent told us what the EBVs of those bulls were at 20 months which is the age they would have been sold. The aims of the Beef and Lamb Genetics NZ in my opinion need to be a little more motivated than just EBVs work. I believe a lot of this information has the ability to improve performance in the beef herds but it is being presented in a way that over sells the benefits and almost totally disregards the dangers of putting the wrong genetics in the wrong environment. Most things come at a cost and by placing emphasis on some traits will come at the expense of others. We all know or we all should know that you cannot get an animal that performs exceptionally well in every trait. Some traits are antagonistic. For example maternal traits and terminal traits are antagonistic. This is why the traditional Hereford is not as muscular as the Limousin or why the Belgium Blue doesnt calve as easy as the Angus. Selecting for extremes in any trait will come at a cost to some other traits so much care should be taken before you get carried away selecting for high growth or any other trait that might be the flavour of the month. I also wonder with all this emphasis place on EBVs as to whether in some cases it has actually lessened productivity in our herds. EBVs have offered us the ability to make genetic change in around 20 traits for most breeds and they are typically the same traits for all the breeds. For our maternal breeds we are offered EBVs for not only the maternal traits but also the terminal traits which we had not traditionally selected for. In our terminal breeds as well as EBVs for the terminal traits we are also offered EBVs for the maternal traits which had not been a priority years ago. Offering EBVs for the maternal traits in terminal breeds has been very useful as the terminal breeds had always needed to make improvements in fertility, calving ease, birth weight and milking ability. Keeping an eye on these traits is important for the stud breeder so they can make improvements for themselves in their own purebred herds but most of these maternal traits are not important to the commercial bull buyer as all the progeny are for slaughter. The problem is that because we are offered these EBVs in our maternal traits we may in some cases get too swept away with improving them to the point where we are losing sight of the terminal traits which gave our breeds their point of difference. In countries like the USA we have seen them change some of their terminal breeds to the point where they have cows that are more refined, have better in calf rates, lower birth weights, better calving ease and really tidy udders and while they are lovely herds and you have to be impressed with what they have done they have also taken away what gave that breed their point of difference from the maternal breeds. Is this genetic improvement or genetic change? I say its change. They have changed the breed from what it used to be and Im not saying its a bad thing but they have changed it. On the other hand we have maternal breeds like Herefords, Angus and Shorthorn who have EBVs for terminal qualities like the carcass traits and because they are offered to them they have the ability to breed for them. My point here is that by multi trait selecting for all of the breeds are we making the breeds more similar to each other and are we loosing the performance that each breed offered for different traits. To me it seems ridiculous to try and make one breed fit every use. To me that is unproductive and inefficient. There is no need to compromise your herd chasing performance in traits the breed was never meant to excel in. That is why we have different breeds so maybe its time to stop being patriotic and try a different coloured bull. The big trend in the Angus at the moment seems to be breeding for IMF% or marbling. The main driver for this is the reserve grade premium you can receive if you hit the grade. The way the algorithm is worked out for the reserve grade is that a high marbling score will counteract any other areas you may have not scored as highly. EBVs provide us the opportunity to select animals with a high IMF%. The reality is that the accuracies on the IMF% EBVs when purchasing your bull is relatively low and the EBVs are calculated from an ultrasound scan and do we really know the relationship between ultrasound scanning for IMF% and visual assessment of marbling on the carcass? By selecting for IMF EBVs could be having a detrimental effect on your cow herd because you are genetically changing your animals to something different, to something the breed was never traditionally bred for. We know what happens over time if you select for marbling, you get a Wagyu type of animal so why not save yourself the hassle and save the integrity of your cow herd and just use a Wagyu to achieve your breeding objective of increasing marbling in your steers? If we take the type of animal into our consideration when breeding steers we could improve the yield of our cattle. Have you actually sat down with a calculator and worked out what your return on a 550kg live weight steer that yields at 53% that hits the reserve grade compared to your return on a 550kg live weight steer that yields 57%. I suggest you do because you may be barking up the wrong tree if you want to increase your productivity. Maybe consider yield instead of marbling to increase productivity and maybe use the advantages of the different breeds to achieve this. Just think in 5 years time we may be all congratulating ourselves that we have made such great achievements on the marbling front and the meat companies might ditch their reserve grade for maybe an environmental friendly brand because thats what consumers want more and all the genetically changed cow herds that suit breeding high marbling steers may not be suited to the new direction of the meat companies and the consumer. Im not saying that this will definitely happen but we always have to be thinking about the future. I believe the most consistent and successful herds have continued to breed the same types of animals for many years and they have not got swept away with all the changing trends. I have overheard discussions with stud breeders talking about bulls. I have seen them walking round a bull saying He is a good bull; he is in the top 10% for growth and has an exceptional EMA EBV. A good old stockman would be shaking his head. What happened to comments like gee that bull is deep and wide and has such a great sires head and good constitution? Have farmers lost their confidence and do they now not know what a phenotypically good bull looks like? Are they too proud to ask someone? Is it just easier to use EBVs and talk numbers because they can justify their selection on this? Is it just easier for the stock manager to go back to the board members and defend his bull purchase by producing numbers rather than explaining why he is a good bull? If you take a look at your cow herd now do you really believe you have improved it over the last 10 years? Do you believe you are getting the improvement that these genetic improvement graphs are showing? I heard of a farmer who spoke about the genetic improvement he had made in his herd by placing huge emphasis on EBVs over the years but for some reason he was not seeing the actual improvements in productivity at all. He was such a believer in EBVs and it had been indoctrinated in him so much that he was coming up with every other excuse to this lack of productivity when the answer was staring him in the face. He had genetically changed his herd but didnt have the environment to suit this genetic change and he had not considered the type of animal in his selection process over the years. As more emphasis is placed on EBVs and they become a marketing tool for stud breeders the more reason there is for breeders to manipulate the figures and this is easy to do. The EBVs are only as good as the raw data that is submitted for each animal. It would not be that difficult to change a birth weight or put in an altered wean weight. In many cases no one would ever know. I have even heard of people having ghost herds in other countries. Thats right, herds that dont even exist so they can change the herd averages that the real animals are getting compared too. When placing all this emphasis on EBVs in your bull selection you are placing a lot of trust in people from around the world that you do not know! They say for every day an animal goes backwards in trying conditions it takes three days for it to go forward again. Maybe think about this when selecting your bulls to buy this season. It may have the most impressive set of EBVs but if its not the type of animal that will suit your environment then dont buy it. If it doesnt look like the sort of bull that will breed cows that will hold on to their condition in the toughest month of winter his extra growth in his EBVs wont mean stuff all! In the future it would be great to see less of these tools for selecting a bull and perhaps see more of encouragement for crossbreeding. Whilst most things come at a cost hybrid vigour is free and using each breed to its advantages would see an improvement in efficiency and productivity in the beef industry. So as bull selling season approaches and you have all start receiving catalogues in the mail maybe consider the reality of EBVs before you start crossing out bulls in the catalogue before you have even seen them. By Anna Fisher.

04.01.2022 This drought is one of the worst since 1902 and it's far from over yet. What people are screaming for is action because they are doing it tough, really tough. Y...esterday's R U Aware We Care fundraising concert raised $40k for local farmers in need. But it's more than that, it's also about the message it sends to Gladys Berejiklian and Malcolm Turnbull that we want you to get together for a summit and come up with a decisive package that deals with the desperate situation that is before us. This drought is as bad as any flood, fire or cyclone or any other natural disaster. We need to look after these people in their time of crisis. See more

02.01.2022 Cows and heifers that are about to drop. These are all supposed to calve within the next week to BEA K26. Look out in the next week for some pictures of the calves as they start to drop