The Ultimate Murray Grey Stud is located at Grove in the beautiful Huon Valley, an easy half hour drive south of Hobart, in Tasmania. Better known as the apple producing centre of the state, the Huon is also famous for its orchards of stone fruits, including cherries. Rolling green hills stretch right throughout the region, and it has a good rainfall – an average of 40 inches per year. It also boasts magnificent rainforest, and is the gateway to the rugged Southwest Wilderness. It is said that the Huon Valley is one of the best places to live in the world, and the Murray Greys obviously agree!

Thirty years ago, a Murray Grey bull was purchased to put with a herd of commercial cows. It was quiet, had high fertility, all calves were born easily and grew fast. These were the qualities that encouraged the family as commercial cattle breeders, decide to breed stud Murray Grey cattle. These are the traits that make the breed attractive still.

Tony Dikkenberg began breeding Murray Greys in 1975, then formed the ‘Boobyalla’ Stud when he and his brother took cows from their ‘Sunrise’ Stud and moved them to Gladstone in NE Tasmania. ‘Boobyalla’ subsequently became the biggest Murray Grey Stud in Tasmania, with more than one hundred and fifty breeding cows. The highly successful ‘Rosemary’ and ‘Cherry Blossom’ female lines were bred.

The Dikkenbergs were amongst the earliest to implement an extensive AI (artificial insemination) program in Tasmania, and later, amongst the first in Tasmania to participate in an ET (embryo transfer) program. From this top herd an elite group of females were selected in 1998, when Tony and his wife Teresa made the journey South to Grove, and the ‘Ultimate’ Murray Grey Stud was born.

‘Ultimate' now runs a small, elite herd on 50 acres, selling junior bulls at 18 months at the National Show and Sale in April, and heifers of the same age at the Island State Sale in May of each year.

Tony Dikkenberg has had a lifetime of farming and breeding experience. He began breeding Murray Greys in 1975 at age 15, when he purchased an approved Angus cow with a ‘C’ grade calf at foot. He won a scholarship to Glenormiston Agricultural College and graduated in 1982, runner up dux for his Diploma of Farm Management. He then took part in an international exchange program, studying and working on farms, with sheep, feedlotting and cropping in the USA for two years.

On returning, Tony managed the family’s 4500 acre beef and sheep property at Gladstone, where, aside from the Murray Grey stud, he ran 350 commercial cows and 3500 wool sheep. Tony then turned his hand to dairy farming for four years, and ran a 1000 acre dairy farm near Ringarooma in the North East of Tasmania.

For five years, Tony was the manager of Agriculture at the ‘Hayes Prison Farm’ in the Derwent Valley. He currently works with the Department of Primary Industry, negotiating with landowners to preserve private forests as part of the Private Forest Reserve Program.