NZ Murray Grey

April 2022 Newsletter

Hello to you all

A warm welcome to our new members:

  • Cat and Caleb Burkitt – Mid Kahui Road, RD 4 Opunake
  • Hayden and Maria Fletcher – (H & M Pastoral Ltd) Culverden
  • Philip and Elizabeth White – 1928 SH3, RD 17, Whanganui

Annual General Meeting 2022

This is to be held in the Taranaki region on the 19th and 20th May.

19 May

10:30             Morning tea  followed by AGM  (Devon Hotel)
12:30             Lunch

2pm               Holden Museum
5:30               Happy hour
                      Dinner (Devon Hotel)

20 May

9:30               Farm tour – Peter Stachurski

12 noon        BBQ lunch and farm tour – Blackwell Farm

Accommodation is available at the Devon Hotel.

General

Premier Cattle Co (Derek and Catherine Hayward) have brought the semen rights for the bull Venturon Rectify R1 from Venturon Livestock which is owned by Harris Thompson.  Harris visited NZ back in 2017 on the Murray Gray youth exchange programme and he also competed at the Canterbury A & P Show.

Breeder Profile: Mangaotea Murray Grey

This year we are profiling our members, watch this space for more. 

Mangaotea Murray Grey Stud is situated in central Taranaki on Mangaotea Farm. The stud was established in 2010 and run by Robin and Jacqueline Blackwell alongside their Angus and Hereford Studs to breed Purebred, Registered bulls for their Annual On Farm bull sale.
 
Daughter, Zarrah Blackwell purchased her first Murray Grey Cows in 2016 and the remainder of the Murray Grey Females being purchased off Robin and Jacqueline in 2018.
Mangaotea Farm is 339ha effective of flat, rolling and steeper hills approximately 15 minutes from Stratford and Inglewood. Mangaotea has an On Farm Sale in September where 180 Bulls are sold undercover in about 2 hours. The breeds are Murray Grey, Angus, Hereford and Jersey. Most of these bulls go directly to the dairy market and so ease of calving is very important.
 
The breeding programme is to breed Moderate birth, easy calving bulls. The females must also have a good constitution and fertility as the mating is only 7 weeks long. No holdover cows are kept. If a cow or heifer does not get in calf she does not get another chance and although this may seem harsh the benefits are now paying off. All cows are mated in the spring to calve from July 25th through till mid September. They must also be able to summer on the hills with the Angus cows and Sheep.
The founding females bloodlines are a majority of Kotare Stud (Wayne and Jean Allerby), Yorkvale (Trevor and Sue Clarke) and Okaharau (now dispersed from Hawkes Bay)
 
Sire Bulls have been purchased from Torrisdale, Murray Downs and Yorkvale. With the recent purchase of Torrisdale Ringmaster R10 an exciting new addition in Spring 2021.
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