Tasmanian Grey

What do Tasmanian Grey cattle look like?

The Tasmanian Grey is a beef breed and it is polled, which means the cattle carry no horns. Coats run to silver grey, grey or dun. The grey shade acts as the stronger colour when these cattle are bred to others. The build follows the two parent breeds, and there is no shoulder hump of the kind humped zebu cattle carry. Cows earned praise for their milk as well as for calm handling and hardiness. A society and a registration system came along well after the first herds had been built up by individual cattlemen.

Where does the Tasmanian Grey come from?

Tasmania, the island state of Australia, is where these cattle were formed in the 1930s. At a property called Parknook, Bill Reed put an Angus bull to a white Shorthorn cow that he kept for milking, and the calves came out grey. For roughly twenty years afterwards the herd went to Angus bulls and grey offspring kept appearing. In 1960 one bull calf was held back: Parknook Thomas. Put to Angus heifers, he became the base of the new breed. Other cattlemen began breeding the greys and a society followed. Talks in 1963 about joining the Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society led, in 1981, to the two bodies combining.

What the Tasmanian Grey is known for

Three qualities besides colour kept breeders with these cattle. The cows milked well. The animals were docile, meaning quiet to handle. They were hardy. The grey coat itself proved dominant: after two decades of using Angus bulls on the herd, grey calves still turned up, and that persistence of colour lay behind the decision to keep a grey bull calf in 1960.

How the Tasmanian Grey is bred and kept

Parknook Thomas, the bull held back in 1960, was put to Angus heifers and their offspring formed the nucleus of the breed. Before that the herd had gone to Angus bulls for about twenty years. Breeders then chose for the grey coat and for the qualities the cows showed. Several cattlemen bred the greys before a breed society was formed to register them. Entry into the Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society was discussed from 1963, and the two organisations joined in 1981, putting the Tasmanian Grey under the same registration as the Murray Grey.

What the Tasmanian Grey is kept for

The Tasmanian Grey is a beef breed. Milk still sits in its beginnings, though: the white Shorthorn cow that started the line was a milking animal, and the grey calves she produced were noted for their milking ability. Breeders therefore had cattle that could be milked as well as fattened, and that were quiet to handle and hardy on the farm. Beef remains the reason the breed was kept and registered.

The land and climate of the Tasmanian Grey

Tasmania, the island state of Australia, is where the breed was formed in the 1930s, and it is where the herds have been kept since. Hardiness was one of the qualities that made breeders hold on to the grey line, so the cattle were expected to do well on farm pasture with ordinary handling. The crossing that began the breed, and the twenty years of Angus bulls that followed, both took place on Tasmanian land.

Who keeps the Tasmanian Grey

Bill Reed, whose property was Parknook, was the first breeder, and the founder bull carries the name of that place. Other cattlemen took up the greys after him and bred them on. Those breeders were the ones who set up the Tasmanian Grey Cattle Breed Society, which registered the cattle and spoke for them. In 1963 the society opened talks with the Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society, and in 1981 the two organisations combined.

Related breeds and crosses

Two breeds stand behind the Tasmanian Grey: the Angus, a polled beef breed, and the Shorthorn, represented here by a white cow kept for milking. Angus bulls were used on the herd for about twenty years after that first crossing, and again on the heifers mated to Parknook Thomas. The Murray Grey is a separate breed, but from 1981 the two have shared one society, after talks that began in 1963.

Numbers, conservation and the herd book

Registration came through the Tasmanian Grey Cattle Breed Society, formed after several cattlemen had started breeding the greys. In 1963 the society began talks about entering the Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society; the two organisations combined in 1981, and the breed's records have sat with that body since. The bull kept in 1960, Parknook Thomas, is the animal from which the registered line grew, mated to Angus heifers to form the breed's nucleus.

Questions people ask about Tasmanian Grey

Good reading and sources

• Tasmanian Grey on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data