Simmental is No 1 in West Kerry Suckler herd

Joseph Sugrue and his wife Mary run a 50 cow Suckler herd at Burnham, Dingle, Co Kerry. Their farm overlooks Dingle Bay and when Joseph is not busy farming he can rest awhile looking for sightings of Dingles own dolphin “Fungi”. The Sugrues farm 100 acres with 70 acres owned and 20 leased and 10 rented for silage cut only.

The Sugrues started their suckler herd in 1988 with the purchase of 35 one and half year old heifers, comprising 15 Hereford and 20 Continental cross - Charolais/Simmental. A Hereford bull was purchased and 32 heifers went in calf. The following season a Simmental bull was purchased. At this time all calves born were sold as weanlings. Bucket fed calves were sourced from local dairy farmers, mainly Continental cross i.e. Charolais, Belgian Blue and Limousin. Simmental cross heifers were hard found in West Kerry.

In the early 1990’s half bred cows were the order of the day and even though his Simmental bull was breeding excellent stock he had not the foresight to bring his excellent offspring into the herd. In the following years he sourced some great half bred Simmental bucket fed heifers and after some years these heifers had a big impact in the herd. It became clear to him that the Simmental cows were breeding great beef cattle coupled with the fact that she had milk and fantastic maternal traits all round.

In the late 90’s Joseph Sugrue decided that he wanted more beef in his cows and to eliminate the Holstein Friesian influence and yet hold onto milk. It was then that he decided to breed his own replacements from his half bred Simmental cows. A.I. was introduced into the herd to his best breeding cows to breed his own replacements. He used Moltke (M.T.E.) and Hurtig (H.R.G.) and some Freighduff Brendan (F.B.X.) to the milkier cows. The herd then moved from half bred to ¾ and 7/8 Simmental.

In 2001 he purchased a Simmental bull whose dam was “Hillcrest Joan” and he is breeding long heifers with good muscling and some of these heifers have calved down in 2005 with Planet (A.S.12) calves and they have plenty of milk for 7/8 bred. In 2004 he purchased a second Simmental bull sired by “Dirnanean Nugget” for the next stage of the development of his herd to breed 15/16 cows with muscle and plenty of milk. In 2004 A.I. was also used viz. Hillcrest King (H.K.G.) Hillcrest Naughty (H.T.Y.) and Ballyduff Jeweller (B.D.J.).

Following a trip to Scotland in 2003 and after visiting suckler herds there, Joseph is now more convinced than ever that he is on course to building a top suckler herd with all the traits needed to produce top beef cattle.

On the financial side i.e. from the sale of his weanling bull calves, these compare favourably with others. In 2003 he sold his weanling bulls, mainly Charolais with some Simmental, in the first week of October for €800 for 400 kgs. These calves had 6 weeks of meal in them. In 2004 he sold 18 calves, all Simmental, at Dingle mart with an average weight of 404 kgs. for €804 each i.e. for January to March born calves in mid September with just 3 weeks of meal in them. This was a saving of three weeks meal and with calves sold a month earlier which meant that the cows had more time to recover for calving in 2005. Joseph knows that the Single Farm Payment (SFP) means just one premium in 2005 but he also knows that a second premium is available to him for the sale of his surplus breeding heifers. This year he has 23 bulling heifers and will sell 10 of these in March at 14 to 15 months old for a premium price that will be his added bonus from using Simmental.

On the future of his suckler enterprise Joseph says that using the proper suckler dam, the proper beef bull and watching his costs will not be enough. He will have to be paid a fair price for his beef. Finally he adds that he needs to get a strong return from the market place to ensure his viability and in using Simmental he knows he has made the right choice and definitely “Simmental is the complete beef breed”, for him.