Introduction

Over the past three hundred years man has been actively seeking to alter the characteristics of cattle to suit the requirements of the present time. Some examples of this genetic selection has been to breed-out unnecessary traits such as horns, or to breed-in desirable traits such as tick resistance.

In the early 1990's well-known Sydney cattle breeder, Rick Pisaturo, looked at the status of the beef cattle industry and determined that a market existed for a specific type of beef animal. The direction that the beef cattle industry had taken during the 80's in producing bigger animals had come at a cost of the ability of animals to mature at an early age. The challenge was to breed a fast growing, early maturing animal with good muscling. The reputation of the original Murray Grey's meant that they were ideally suited as the base stock. By careful selection of breeding females and suitable older styled Murray Grey sires combined with careful genetic selection for the targeted traits resulted in the first Square Meater calves being born at Mandalong Stud in 1994.

A desirable side effect from the early maturing Square Meaters is that their overall size was slightly smaller than their Murray Grey ancestors. This smallness is reflected shortness of leg length not in a general miniaturisation of the animal.

So what has actually been achieved in breeding of Square Meaters?

Characteristically a typical Square Meater mature female will weigh around 450Kg and be around 125cm tall. She will have a deep body with a good udder and produce calves at 20-30Kg birth weight, with no calving difficultly, at 2 years of age. The young calves grow rapidly to achieve a live weight of 280-340 Kg at 9-11 months of age. From only a few weeks of age onwards the calves have a characteristic 'rounded bum' that is noticeable when comparing animals of other breeds at the same age.

Mature bulls weigh around 800Kg plus at around 130cm high, again with a deep body on short legs. Despite the shortness of leg, Square Meater bulls can easily serve larger females in commercial crossbreeding programs.

The Square Meaters Cattle Association does have a height restriction on the registering of bulls. At 12 months of age bulls cannot be less than 103cm and not more than 113cm. This regulation is aimed at providing a safeguard against animals becoming too small or regressing back to taller/slower growing characteristics.