Elbern Murray Grey Stud sells its cattle

A new chapter for Elbern Murray Grey Stud has begun, with the sale of its stock to Troy Wright Holdings at Riana.

Due to some health issues, owners Bernard and Ellie Atkins have made the tough decision, after 45 years of breeding, to sell the herd of 120 cattle.

Troy Wright has been purchasing bulls from the Atkins for many years to put over his commercial herd of Murray Greys, and over the past few years has also purchased some females.

Troy recently sent 60 11-month-old steers, sired by Elbern bulls, to Powranna Store Sale and topped the market at $2220 per head.

Having been delighted with the performance of the cattle, rearing excellent progeny with high weight gain for age, he agreed to purchase the entire herd, including the stud name.

“We will continue to work in an advisory capacity with the stud, so will still have input, but not the physical work,” Bernard said.

“We wish Troy and Jenna and family all the very best with this new venture, and we hope it brings them the same satisfaction and joy, breeding this wonderful breed of cattle, as we have had.”

The stud began when the Atkins, when new to the breeding scene, wanted to try some different genetics to add into their herd and after doing some research chose semen from Koojan Hill Midnight Cowboy owned by Archie and Beryl Priestly from the Robgranthony Stud in Western Australia.

With the AI calves on the ground, the Priestly’s visited Tasmania and the farm to look at the Cowboy progeny.

“They were very impressed with what they saw and with our enthusiasm for the breed, so after continuing on their holiday Archie phoned us and asked if we would be interested in maybe entering into a partnership with them,” Bernard said.

Over the years they successfully exhibited their cattle at shows throughout Tasmania and were regular exhibitors at the National Show and Sales in Albury Wodonga, coming home with many championship and supreme exhibit ribbons along the way.

In 1994 they took Robern Mr Muscle who won the junior, grand and supreme exhibit against more than 80 bulls entered that year.

Robern was the first Murray Grey Stud in Australia to export embryos into the USA (Robern Mr Muscle/Wallflower), and it sold semen into USA, UK, Denmark and New Zealand.

In 1999 the Atkins sold the Robern name to the Meyer family in Victoria, which included semen and embryos, and they reverted back to the original name Elbern, and moved into Stanley in the year 2000.