Sweet Home is known for many things, especially as the Gateway to the Santiam Playground, the Oregon Cascades.
But surprisingly, the community is home to several national award winning herds of cattle. Pascalar Angus Ranch and Mabe’s Red Angus have both bred and shown nationally recognized animals.
Recently, Hillside Acres owned by George and Sharon Virtue, joined the ranks of national winners in a big way, owning a young Murray Grey bull that was named not only the USA champion but also the Canadian champion. This is the first time a bull has captured both titles.
The Virtues have a small, but select herd of Murray Grey cattle. Bred originally in Australia–a Shorthorn cow that was bred to Angus bulls and produced “silver” calves–in 1918. While they have been successful in state and county shows from Oregon to as far east as Ohio, this is the first time the family has owned a national champion.
“We had been wanting a bull from this certain cow (Willow Creek Orchid) for some time,” George Virtue said. “We were attending the national show in Spokane, we saw him the first day and bought him the second day of the show.”
Willow Creek Star Bright went on to win the show, especially significant since he was only nine months old.
Willow Creek’s former owner told the Virtues he believed the bull would stand well at the upcoming Canadian national shown called Farm Fair.
A month later, he won championship honors again.
“We like Murray Gray cattle because they have excellent meat qualities but also because they are such gentle animals,” Sharon Virtue said. “Their disposition is excellent.”
The Virtues say Willow Creek Star Bright will allow them to continue to improve the carcass quality of their herd and to improve rate of gain as well. (Rate of gain is the number of pounds per day the animal gains relatively to feed rations.)
“Murray Grey, as a whole, tend to be a little small,” George said. “Willow Creek has the potential to help owners increase their calving and overall herd size.”
At one year, Willow Creek weighed 1,068 pounds, Virtue said.
“We’ve already gotten lots of inquiries from around the world because of our web site,” Sharon said. “We only have 30 females but we are very selective. We sell our seed stock to breeders and our bulls to commercial herds. We can’t produce enough animals to meet the demand.”
The family has been in the livestock business for several years but began breeding Murray Greys in 1992.
“Sharon saw them and fell in love with them, George said. “We had bred Simmentals and Shorthorns before. The Murray Greys are smaller and much easier to handle.”
Although the bulk of the Murray Grey calves have a “silver” colored hide, some are brown or even black.
The Virtues enjoy their farm life and are avid Oregon State University supporters.
Once the family’s hay is in the barn for the year, Sharon and other family members hit the road of the show circuit for a couple months.
“We meet the greatest people when we travel to the shows,” Sharon said. “We sell cattle at the shows to pay for the trips.”
The Virtue’s appreciate the help of their grown children, their spouses and their 10 grandchildren.
“Our females have always been on top,” Sharon said. “We have been named premiere breeder in Ohio and Montana.”
Calving season is underway at Hillside Acres and breeding season isn’t far off. It won’t be until next winter when Willow Creek Star Bright’s potential becomes reality.
“That’s the thing about cattle breeding,” George said. “You make a decision today to buy a bull, then you wait for breeding season, wait another nine months for calves and then another year to see how those calves turn out. It’s a two to three year program.”
George said he hopes to see Willow Creek Star Bright raise weaning weights to more than 700 pounds and calving weights into the 80-pound range.
“We’re always trying to improve our herd,” George said. “The shows are nice but really, it just means that on that day, your animal was better than the other guy’s. A different judge on a different day and things could be different. It’s a great marketing tool.”
The Virtues said there were approximately 50 bulls entered in both the U.S. and Canadian national shows.
Hillside Acres is active in embryo transplant programs as a way of quickly moving toward desirable herd qualities.
“Our goal is to get a herd that is full-blood,” Sharon said. “That means every cow or bull can be traced back to the original Murray Grey line.