Profiles

Waterford Suckler Farmer’s move to Simmental Pays Off

In March `08 Rathcormac suckler farmer John Power made the decision to introduce a Simmental bull into his herd. John runs a 200 cow herd and had slowly come to the decision that his cow’s were short of milk and as a result he was not achieving his target weights for his progeny.

John decided to purchase at the Society Premier Sale as he “wanted to have the best possible selection” when purchasing. John selected a “Ballyduff Jeweller” bull and introduced this bull with 37 cows from which he would like retain heifers as replacements. 36 of these cows calved down in Spring `09 (16 Bulls & 20 Heifers)

The first batch of heifers is now on the point of calving at two year’s of age. According to John these heifers are extremely well grown and look very promising.

A very pleasing addition for John was the performance of the Simmental male progeny. John feeds all male progeny as bulls and slaughters half at 15 months and the remaining at 22 months. All of the Simmental bulls are matching and out performing their Charolais comrades. While loosing slightly on grading, the weight gain is resulting in the Simmental progeny delivering equal if not higher returns. John acknowledges that he could possibly go for a Simmental bull with more muscle to deliver more “U” grade bulls but he chose his current bull to breed heifers and is very pleased with how they look.

The first 7 were killed at approx 16 months old.

Cork Farmer hitting the WEIGHTS with SIMMENTAL

Ger Dineen, who runs a 50 cow suckler herd near Kilnamartyr in Cork has switched to using 100% Simmental in his cows. Ger calves all his replacements at two years of age and using very easy calving Limousin on these heifers.  Ger has gone down the A.I. route as he believes it gives him access to the very best genetics available. All his female offspring are targeted at the replacement market. Ger’s surplus heifers are keenly sought after by some of the top suckler farmers in the region. All male progeny are finished between 11 & 13 months. Ger weights all animals on a regular basis and is extremely pleased with how his bull weanling have responded since he introduced them to meal and weaning in September. In the period from mid September to end of December the Simmental bulls has performed at an average of 1.78 kgs per day.

Commercial Simmental Excel in Italian Feedlot

Last July Simmental Breeder and commercial suckler farmer Raymond O`Malley, Ardee, Co. Louth sold a consignment of Commercial Simmental bulls (8 to 10 months old) for export. These weanlings were purchased by TLT Livestock and were exported to Italy to the feedlot of Massoro & Sons. This feedlot is based in Veneto near Venice and caters for 1200 feeding bulls.

Traditionally Massoro & Sons has purchased 50% of their bulls from France (Charolais) and 50% from Ireland (Charolais, Limousin & some Simmental). However the performance of the recent batch of Irish Simmental is resulting in a rethink of this policy. Mr. Massoro confirming, that if he could get enough of the quality Irish Simmental that he would drop the French Charolais.

Over the past number of years the average kill out from the feedlot has been 57% and this year the Simmental bulls killed out at 62.5%. These bulls did 1.89kgs/day in the feedlot and all graded U+.

Mr. Massoro concluded by stating that the Simmental Bulls were way better feed converters and that he also had far less feet and leg problems.

Simmental is the Foundation of Sligo Farmers quality Producing Suckler Herd

Paul Cryan who farms at Tonaphonra, Keash, Ballymote, Co. Sligo started in 1996 by

Paul Cryan

purchasing his first Simmental heifer at the Society’s sale in Roscommon.  This was a pedigree heifer which was champion female on the day at £2000 and even though he did not pursue any further down the pedigree route she was the launching pad for his Simmental suckler herd in the years ahead.

Paul farms 120 acres, 30 owned, 40 long-term leased and 50 acres annual rent.  He also works outside of the farm.  Paul says “the thing I liked most about the Simmental is their docility”.  This factor is very important to a man like Paul whose herd is fragmented and necessitates movements of stock from farm to farm.  He says “cattle have to be able to be handled by one person – myself, and my dog.  Also the Simmental dam has plenty of milk to rear a good calf and produce a calf every year”.

As years went on he went more and more towards Simmental purchasing both weanling and maiden heifers at his local Connacht Gold mart in Ballymote.  Paul says “it was really the females that he purchased on a yearly basis at the Simmental Cross heifer sale in Ballymote that introduced real quality into my suckler herd”.  In comparison to normal mart sales these heifers were far superior and their quality came through and through again in their progeny in either male or female calves.  He also received much higher prices for his calves.  This year his bull calves took 1^st and 2^nd prize in the Simmental section at the annual weanling sale e.g. 380 kgs sold for €800 and a 400 kgs calf sold for €830.  He always keeps his best heifers for his own replacements.  At this years Simmental cross sale he sold ten in-calf heifers to average €1,720 with tops of €2,180 and €2,000.  All of the heifers were in-calf to Seepa Tee-Jay (IS4).  Five of the heifers were born on the farm from his Simmental stock bull.  On the same day he purchased a maiden heifer weighing 635 kgs for €1,600 to join his suckler herd to produce quality cattle in the future.

His cow herd is divided into autumn and spring calving.  Paul runs the stock bull with his spring calvers only, all autumn calving cows and heifers are inseminated with AI Simmental bulls.  Paul recommends this system as his cows are indoors for service and he is able to use his Simmental bull for longer as he can use AI on the bull’s daughters.

I suppose it’s only right and fitting that Simmental should be Pauls preferred breed for his suckling herd as the location of his farm is an elevated one close to the famous “Keash Caves” and somewhat similar to the country of origin of the Simmental breed in Switzerland.

Why the commercial farmer is now looking to Simmental to provide a base for future progress.

James Costello, Dromard, Co.Sligo who runs a 60 cow suckler herd along with a flock of 200 ewes, changed to a Simmental bull as he found it very hard to source replacement heifers. He purchased a top Tully performance tested bull (top 1% of the breed) to produce class weanling bulls and quality heifers for his suckler replacements.

Pete Gallagher, Ballyhaunis, Co.Mayo, who specialises in the yearling bull beef trade for the Italian market with a contractual agreement with Kepak, is getting great results from his Simmental bulls. He feeds Simmental and Charolais weanlings and finds that they finish for the niche markets at 11 to 12 months, have a very high growth rate and grade U3 with a carcase weight of up to 330kgs. Pete tried other continental calves but found that they did not have sufficient growth rate. Pete is looking for weanling bulls all year round, weighing 350kg+, and eating meal. He has paid over €400 with the weight in 2002 for Simmental and Charolais, and can see himself doing the same in 2003.

Joseph O’ Siochru, Burnham, Dingle, Co. Kerry, ruins a 60 cow suckler herd, mainly consisting of half and three quarter bred Simmental cows. He started of with a half bred Simmental and crossed with a Charolais stock bull. Each year he would A.I a number of his cows to Moltke- A.I Simmental bull in Dairygold- (MTE), to breed his own replacements. Joseph then went one step further and purchased a Simmental bull in 2001 and now has seven eight bred Simmental heifers on the ground. Joseph said that those calves have excellent conformation and he knows that they will have milk (knowing both dam and sire lines) As Joseph goes the route of upgrading his cows, he says that he is very pleased with Simmental due to their ease of calving, milk supply and conformation.