Ganado Murray Grey stud wins supreme Melbourne Royal Show sash

The Ganado Murray Greys stud principal from Marong in central Victoria won the supreme Murray Grey exhibit at the prestigious Royal show on Thursday with a 14-month-old junior bull.

It was the stud's fourth top gong at the show, after winning the title in 2017, 2019 and again in 2022 after a two-year hiatus brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Ms Hazeldene said she was chuffed with the unexpected result.

"I had my first baby five months ago, so preparation this year was a bit more challenging for me," she said.

"The preparations for me started around April/May, so It's been full-on since then."

The Ganado stud was established in 2006, two years before Ms Hazeldene debuted in her first show.

"I started with a lot of the local shows around Bendigo and in recent years, I have expanded to Royals across the country," she said.

"I won supreme at Canberra last year, along with a couple of reserves, I had good success at Bendigo and somehow I am getting it right here at Melbourne."

Ms Hazeldene said the Murray Grey breed was more common than most people thought, and were commonly used as a cross over some of the most popular beef breeds in Australia.

"Feed efficiency is a huge bonus for Murray Greys, they have a great temperament, they finish really well on grass and have a beautiful nature," she said.

"Butchers love them, you'd be surprised how many Murray Grey-crosses there would be in saleyards."

The prize-winning bull, Ganado Too Cool, will be retained by the stud for the foreseeable future, and joined to a herd of mixed-age cows and heifers on its return home.

"A friend of mine at school, his father had Murray Greys, and I wanted to know more about cattle so I started doing voluntary work on his farm and fell in love with the docility of the Murray Greys," Ms Hazeldene said.

"My husband does help around the stud, but generally it's my thing and that works really well."

The Ganado brand is also used to market grass-fed Murray Grey beef from paddock to plate, while in the past, the stud has sold genetics internationally and across Australia.

"His sire was Ganado R2-D2 and he was the top-priced bull at last year's Premier Murray Grey Sale and his dam was purchased from Waroona Murray Greys for a top price too," Ms Hazeldene said.

The grand champion cow was won by GC Livestock, Prairie Falls Murray Greys, Breakaway Creek, with exhibit Prairie Falls Bettina R5 securing the ribbon with a calf at foot.

Murray Grey judge Nicole Muller, Rellum Farms Simmentals, Mount Gambier, SA, said it was hard to fault the junior bull.

"I really liked the line up of Murray Greys and the different types of animals because it proves the breed can be used in different directions and fill every market," she said.

"We saw some cattle out there that had a bit more growth and length of body, and we had ones that were more moderate-framed with better carcase attributes."

Ms Muller said the junior bull was structurally sound.

"I was looking at him the hardest and I just found he was just definitely the most complete animal who was here," she said.

"I liked the overall red meat factor about the grand champion cow and her ability to prove that she could produce a calf as well sold me on being able to put her up as the grand champion female.

"I found the bull just a bit more structurally sound through his front end compared to the cow, but both were very complete animals in their own right."