It Has to Make Economic Sense Tom Murray

Tom Murray, owner of Big Branch Simmentals
and Big Branch Breeder’s Service, lives in the
Avilla community, 20 minutes west of Little Rock.
He is, like most people, not bashful when asked
about his topics of interest and experience, primarily
herd efficiency and reproductive management.
“If it makes economic sense, then let’s do it. If
the math doesn’t make sense, then let’s just drop
it,” he says. “That’s the bottom line foundation of
the various businesses that I have been involved
with over the years.”
A native of Indiana, Murray graduated from
Valparaiso Technical Institute and immediately went
to work for Texaco, performing seismograph work
and maintaining electronic equipment. His duties
required him to travel extensively throughout the
US and into several foreign countries. His first trip
was to El Dorado, Arkansas, where he met his
future wife, Elene, married her and started a family.
After 16 years with the company, his family grew
tired of their frequent moves and constant travel. “I
resigned from Texaco and knew I had to find something
else to do since I had a wife and three children
12 May/June 2013
By Dan Rieder
Arkansas breeder Tom Murray’s
approach to business is based on a
philosophy of sound economics.
Tom and Elene Murray.
Photo by Alex Kent, Sherwood, AR
by then,” he explained. “It was always our dream to
live in the country, to farm and be as self-sufficient
as we could be, raising our own vegetables and
meat. So in 1985, we started with 15 acres and a
few commercial cows.”
At that time, with no trash pick-up in a large
portion of the county, folks were hauling their
garbage into the woods and disposing of it by dumping
it into county-sanctioned holes in the ground.
Occasionally, the county would bring in heavy
equipment and cover it up. When the Arkansas
Pollution Control & Ecology Department began to
heavily fine the county for that practice, the Murrays,
who are environmentally aware, saw an
opportunity and started Big Branch Waste Management
on a shoestring. “We stayed in that business
for 10 years, expanding from two customers to
several thousand — utilizing a number of big
commercial trucks, and provided the only recycling
pickup in the county,” said Murray.
“After some time passed, we received an offer
that was too good to pass up and we sold the business.
It was time to focus on our farm and family.”

Moving Forward
Murray jumped into cattle breeding with both feet. “By then, I had
established my Simmental cow herd. I’d read about the breed and I
liked all of their characteristics. I eliminated the few cows I’d had
from another Continental breed. Those cows would put you right up
in the back of your truck,” he said.
“That was at the height of the big exotic cattle era, they were all
spotted and tall enough to walk over the top of a five-wire barbed
wire fence,” he laughed. “Then, I ran into Dr. Robert Messer of Texas.
He convinced me to purchase my first Fleckvieh cow. I really didn’t
know what I was doing, but she proved herself to be awesome and
made a Simmental believer out of me. She was a little yellow cow that
weighed 1,100 pounds and weaned off blocky, 700-pound calves.”
Murray continued to build his herd with Messer genetics. “I bought
several females from him, and before long, my herd was all Fleckvieh.
Even today, my best cows can be traced back to his cattle. I still love
the Fleckvieh, but now we’re breeding a few to red and black purebred
bulls,” he added.
“I really like those Fleckvieh-purebred cross calves. I believe that
we get some within-breed heterosis out of that combination, and
they are very marketable. The commercial cattlemen around here
are mostly breeding Angus with a few Herefords, but they are coming
to realize that they need to get away from straightbreds. These halfblood
bulls are in high demand,” he said.
Before the record-breaking drought of the past few years, Murray
had built his herd to 50 head, but has been forced to cut back to their
present level of 35 cows due to the resulting shortage of grass. He
plans to rebuild when climatic conditions permit.
For the past decade or more, he has had a contractual relationship
with Laura’s Lean Beef, based out of Lexington, Kentucky. “Laura’s
focuses on Continental, heavy-muscled, lean cattle breeds including
Simmental, Charolais, Limousin and Gelbvieh. It’s a branded market
and they do pay a premium for all natural — no hormones, or antibiotics”
he says.
“They’ll take intact bulls, cows, heifers or steers. The steers and
heifers we don’t keep are marketed through Laura’s Lean Beef. We
sell a few breeding bulls and heifers, but I haven’t been selling a lot
of breeding stock lately since I’ve had so much success selling to
Laura’s Lean Beef. I’ve gone right to market with 700-pound calves.
It’s a relationship that works,”
says Murray.
Murray and several of his
neighbors who also produce
Simmental genetics, combine
their cattle to assemble a truckload
for Laura’s Lean Beef.
“Laura’s comes down here to
our fairgrounds, weighs them,
and loads them up. That way,
they pick up quite a few head
with just one stop.”
Murray (fifth from the left in the front
row) with one of his AI clinics.
Serving the Industry
Big Branch Breeder’s Service, a company
he formed several years after selling the
waste management business, is also named
after Big Branch Creek, the stream that flows
through the farm.
Murray has been an Artificial Insemination
Representative for an extended period,
first with Genex and Accelerated Genetics,
then, for the past 10 years with ABS Global
as their representative for the state of
Arkansas. “Big Branch Breeder’s Service is
a full-service company; we supply semen
and liquid nitrogen for A.I. tanks, conduct
instructional clinics, and breed cows for
our clients,” he said.
“We employ two men full time, in addition
to ourselves. We are the largest provider
of liquid nitrogen, semen, and breeding
service to Arkansas’ cattle people. Most cattlemen
in this area have only 20 cows, and
may not want to own a bull. They also want
to use the best genetics available. Those are
a couple of areas where producers find our
Artificial Insemination and Reproductive
Management Clinics helpful. We hold two
or three sessions a year, try to keep it as
simple as possible, and end up training 35
to 40 people a year,” he says. “Our crew
also breeds thousands of head each year
for our clients.”
Big Branch Breeder’s Service goes one
step further, assisting their clients in selling
their bred heifers. “We add value to our
breeding projects by working with producers
to market their A.I. bred heifers through an
AI-bred heifer sale at the larger sale barns.
This added value has proven to be a great
incentive,” he advised.
(Continued on page 14)
May/June 2013 13

(Continued from page 13)
Their farm is the family hub with four
generations currently residing in the valley.
Land owned by his parents, Eric and Lucy,
touches the eastern boundary of the farm.
They moved south from Indiana after Eric,
a British immigrant, concluded a career with
Uniroyal. Lucy was a nurse and together,
they had four sons.
Residing on the northwestern perimeter
is their son, Andy, and his wife, Ginna, and
their two boys, Drew, 11 and Matt, 10. Andy
works for Harris Electronics, maintaining
telecommunications systems, while Ginna
owns a speech pathology clinic, Therapy
Providers, PA.
Daughter, Emily Norman, an adjunct
instructor at a local college, is a middle
school teacher-turned-stay-at-home mom,
keeping an eye on Joseph, 2, and 10-monthold
baby, Elizabeth. Her husband, Jonathan,
14 May/June 2013
Hands-on experience is available to all AI class participants.
Murray is second from the right.
is a computer programmer for Southwest Power Pool. They, live
on the northern perimeter of the farm on their own six acres.
Tragically, the baby of Tom and Elene’s family, 12-year-old
Tommy, was killed in a traffic accident 19 years ago.
“I wasn’t raised in agriculture, but I made a conscious decision
to get into it. Elene and I like the idea of being as self-sufficient as
possible,” he concluded. “We continue to believe that if something
makes sense economically, we’ll go for it.” ◆