Selecting the best cows
From the outset of breeding cattle, our backgrounds in science led us to focus on production. We aimed to identify the cows that had the best calves. Shortly after starting with Murray Greys, we registered them with the Murray Grey Society and recorded weights with Breedplan. We do not select our cows based on Breedplan figures, we use Breedplan to measure our progress.
We prefer our calves to be of moderate size, with 38 kg being ideal, and to be born easily. Once on the ground, we expect our calves to show above-average growth. The Southern Tablelands district average for calf growth to weaning is 1 kg per day. We expect the calves born to our mature cows to grow better than 1.2 kg per day, which has become a selection criterion.
In recent years, we faced the unexpected problem of the Myostatin variant, NT821. Because we chose to eliminate this gene from our herd, we had less scope to select for production than previously. As a result, some cows with growth rates closer to 1.2 kg per day have been retained. Now, we have very few carrier females left in the herd, and our focus is once again on addressing production parameters.
Cows that suit our conditions
Cows need to suit the conditions where they run. At Binda, in the NSW Southern Tablelands, our best-performing cows are early maturing, of moderate size, and have a deep body. Larger-framed cows did not thrive in our climate and did not meet our production criteria. Cows in our very cold climate need adequate fat cover to get through our winters. Earlier maturing cows have a significantly lower maintenance requirement.
We bought foundation females from a number of studs. Some of these female lines have been very successful, other females that we purchased are no longer represented in our herd. This is not to say they were not good cattle, they may not have suited our conditions. We have found that if the stud of origin had conditions similar to ours they were much more likely to do well at Cadfor.
For example, cattle from areas with a Mediterranean climate, which have moist winters and pastures with high sugar content, are more likely to grow long claws. Studs in these areas would be more likely to cull cattle if their feet have problems. We have found that cattle from areas that are dependant on tropical or native pastures are more likely to have foot problems in our herd.
We have made a similar conclusion on the source of our bulls having a significant effect on the performance of our cows. For example, the top 4 cows in our herd, based on the Breedplan report of May 2024, are out of cows sired by Banksia Ridge Harry H1. Harry’s daughters are smaller cows, with adequate fat cover that are good milkers.
The strength of our female lines
Quite clearly the offspring of some females have done better than others. This can be judged by the number of female offspring that have been registered with the Cadfor prefix. The most prevalent female lines and the number of females registered with that name are as follows:
Cadfor Ushi 71
Cadfor Phillipa 41
Cadfor Beroleanne 37
Cadfor Jessica 31
Cadfor Ester 29
Cadfor Linda 28
Cadfor Kate 26
Cadfor Dawn 22
These 8 family lines comprise 56% of the 511 females registered with the Cadfor prefix. Many of the foundation females of these families were purchased early in our Murray Grey breeding. The Ushi line originated with Highlands Ushi, by The Glen Friday and bred by Charles Lloyd-Jones, which was purchased by Rod Hoare in 1976 when running the Wilton Park Stud. The Ushi line was very strong at Wilton Park with 34 Wilton Park Ushi females produced, some of which were transferred to Cadfor Murray Greys in 2003.
Another strong family line, although more recently acquired, is the Impost family. The Impost family originated from the Bundaleer stud where they appeared to be bigger cattle with above average birth weights. Our first Impost was Wallawong Impost J9, a black cow, which when joined to Banksia Ridge Harry H1 produced Cadfor Impost M331, one of our best cows. All 12 Cadfor Impost females by 7 different bulls are significantly better than breed average for growth and carcase.
