BLACK is the new grey for Australia's own breed, the Murray Grey.
Society members voted to allow black-coated Murray Greys to be registered at last week's annual general meeting in Wodonga.
The move enables black Murray Greys to be exhibited at agricultural, royal and the breed's national show.
Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society president Tony Dikkenberg said the new regulations made the breed more commercially acceptable.
"Feedlot buyers prefer black cattle and have been biased against Murray Greys because of their colour," he said.
"At the AGM, there was a vote to allow black Murray Greys to be exhibited at any royal show."
Black Murray Greys will be identified by a freezebrand of a map of Australia with the letters MG in the middle.
Mr Dikkenberg said some breeders had felt they were unfairly penalised for quality cattle on the basis of colour.
"This will give commercial cattle breeders an alternative to Angus," he said. Mr Dikkenberg said he had not experienced the prejudice in his home state of Tasmania.
Mr Dikkenberg said the black Murray Greys needed to be more than 90 per cent purebred to be eligible for registration.
"Black is a naturally occuring colour in the breed as 25 per cent of the time a black calf will result from the matings of two grey animals," he said.
Southern NSW breeder Ian Bromham, who paid the top bull price at the breed's national sale last week, said it was getting harder to sell greys due to colour prejudice.
