Category: Management

The most common infectious disease that has killed our cattle is enterotxaemia or pulpy kidney which is caused by the toxin of the bacterium Clostridium perfringens (Type-D) when it is absorbed from the intestinal tract. The bacteria multiplies rapidly when conditions change such as increased feed intake, new or better pasture, dramatic change in diet, or the introduction of grain based diets.

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Productive Pastures on Light Soils Much of the light soils on the Southern Tablelands is considered “sheep country” and is well known for its production of fine wool.  Many of the pastures are based on native grasses with sub clover and, while adequate for wethers growing wool, do not adequately support production systems like steer […]

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At Cadfor Murray Greys we call ourselves “The Quiet Achievers”.  This is no marketing gimmick – we only keep and breed quiet cattle.   People that have inspected our stock or bought our bulls nearly always mention the quiet temperament of our cattle are and how easy they are to handle.  We are so confident […]

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There has been a lot of confusion about requirements for a Property Biosecurity Plan, especially as it relates to Bovine Johne’s Disease (BJD).  This comes at the same time as Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) have announced new requirements for biosecurity and animal welfare for Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) to come into effect from October. […]

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When we set about correcting the erosion problem on our Greenrock Creek we included “rehydrating the floodplain” as a potential benefit.  Many people will have seen statements from Peter Andrews in Natural Sequence Farming about similar benefits that accrue from spreading creek flows over the floodplain. The results have surprised us.  The photos show the […]

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Over the last six months we have received less than half our average rainfall, yet again we are hand feeding our cattle. With 30 years’ experience in ruminant nutrition research, Helena has the job of calculating what we feed the cattle to provide sufficient energy and protein to meet their maintenance and production needs. We also try and make the most cost effective decisions.

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We ran our Murray Greys at Picton for about 35 years and never had a problem with feet despite keeping many cows into their teenage years. The herd was fairly early maturing and we had a couple of dam lines that tended to be roly poly fat. The pasture at Picton was essentially C4 tropical type grasses like paspalum, kikuyu and natives such as kangaroo grass.

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For many years we never used electric prodders on our cattle because we had seen them misused. With good facilities and better stock handling methods, as espoused by Temple Grandin, stock can be easily and safely handled with minimal stress. We strongly oppose the misuse of prodders but there are times when they are invaluable and training cattle is one such time. [In getting ideas for this post we found an article from NSW DPI (reference below) that has the same opinion.]

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I remember reading an interesting paper entitled “Effect of breed on the profitability of commercial beef production” written by Holmes and Sackett some years ago but I mislaid it. Going through some files I found it again and reproduce the findings here.

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