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GETTING STARTED IN THE BUSINESS OF BREEDING MURRAY GREY CATTLE |
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Some Twin Fir Cows in the pasture. |
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For years, TWIN FIR FARMS was known as an Arabian Horse Breeding and Training business. In 1991 that changed with the sale of the training facility, the sale of most of the Arabian horses and the purchase of new property. The new property consisted of 110 acres of irrigated pasture. After purchasing our property, we decided that we should have some cattle to eat grass so we purchased some commercial cows. Then we needed a bull and that is how we got involved with our first MG cattle. We read an article in one of the cow papers about these grey cattle from Australia that were docile and easy to handle, something our commercial cattle were not! Anyway, we visited a couple of MG breeders and ended up buying 6 bred females and no bull. We sold our commercial cattle and were in the MG business. That fall we went to a MG show in Billings, Montana and while there, bought two weaned calves, a heifer and a bull. They had both won their classes and the bull went on to become the Junior Champion. It turned out that the bull calf, Gentle Acres Trojan, was to become a winning Show Champion as well as one of the leading sires in the US and Canada. To date, our best calves have been by that bull. We sold him a couple of years ago but we still AI to him. He won the "Get of Sire" Classes at the World Congress in 1998 and the National MG Show in 1999. Our herd is made up of 30 mother cows, 12 yearling heifers and a yearling bull, Twin Fir Smokin Cotton, who is a black son of Gentle Acres Trojan. We AI most of our cows using top bulls of the breed. This year we have calves from Willalooka Power, Wee-Gun Tjandamara,Temar Lotus, New Haven Park Pericles, Lindale Hobo (a Power son), SWG Khan (a Canadian bull) and Gentle Acres Trojan. We have three imported ET (embryo transfer) this year. One is Robern Mister Musclex Mt. View Wallflower (from Australia) and the other two are Marire Gambler and Marire Odette (from New Zealand). |
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Wee-Gun Tjandamarra Senior Champion Bull at 1998 Royal Adelaide Show Sired the high selling animal at the 1999 Can-Am Sale, Royal Winter Fair in Toronto |
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Gentle Acres Trojan Grand Champion Bull-Calgary Stampede Grand Champion NILE Murray Grey Show Twice National Champion Get of Sire Sire of National Champion ,Twin Fir Silki Sire of Res. National Champion, Twin Fir Black Jack Sire of Reserve National Champion Female, Twin Fir Breeze 3 Times National Champion Get of Sire |
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Wee-Gun Tjandamarra Senior Champion Bull at 1998 Royal Adelaide Show Sired the high selling animal at the 1999 Can-Am Sale, Royal Winter Fair in Toronto |
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Twin Fir Auburn SWG Khan 6Y x Padilla Celeste 13X 1998 US Heifer Futurity Champion |
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Twin Fir Silver Bullet JT Canadian Diplomat x Lindale Crystal 1998 US Reserve National Bull |
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Twin Fir Silki Gentle Acres Trojan 66C x Lindale Velvet 1998 US National Champion Female |
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TF Auburn (SWG Kahn) with 1998 calf TF Sergeant Major Reserve Champion over the three years. |
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Life is like a dog sled team. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes. |