Meat Promotion Wales

by Iain | Mar 9, 2012 | Uncategorised

What HCC offer to Simmental Breeders in Wales?

Hybu Cig Cymru is the organisation responsible for the development, promotion and marketing of Welsh red meat. HCC currently offer a range of funding opportunities and resources to beef and lamb producers in Wales.

Breed Improvement

HCC aims to help breeders in Wales by offering support to introduce superior genetics into their herds.

The table below shows the amount of funding available to breeders in Wales.

Performance Recording (PR)

• Performance recording allows you to:
• Enables herd selection based on performance.
• Measure traits that you can’t see (e.g. eye muscle area).
• Improve selected traits while maintaining others.
• Use the figures as a marketing too.

Artificial Insemination (AI) & Embryo Transfer (ET)

To qualify for AI and ET funding from HCC, the bulls used must have EBV’s in the top 90% for calving ease direct. They must also be in the top 10% for either 400 day weight or eye muscle area.

Fertility Testing Bulls

HCC are offering funding towards fertility testing bulls. Bull fertility is vitally important as infertile bulls are a major cause of economic loss in the industry.

HCC will fund 50% of the cost of fertility testing up to £200 (to a maximum of £50 per bull)

Carcase Selection Events

The opportunity to assess live animals, follow them through the abattoir process to the chillers and review the carcases. The event gives an insight into:

• Current market demands
• Carcase classification
• Breed traits

Thainstone Sale

by British Simmental | Feb 29, 2012 | Uncategorised

The sales season’s fireworks continued at the Society sale at Thainstone on 29th February 2012.
The Champion Bull Islavale Bailey, by Glenturk Premier from Mr W S Stronach, Berryleys Farm, Keith Aberdeenshire sold for 9000gns a centre record for Simmentals to Liam Muir, Upper Onston, Stenness Orkney.

Reserve Champion Tillyeve Blockbuster, by Kilbride Farm Vernon from Messrs C & M Bruce, Tillyeve, Undy,Ellon sold to Messrs Morrison, Fairburn, Longmanhill Banff for 8000gns.

10 bulls sold to average £5071.50, the one bull not sold through the ring was sold immediately after the sale resulting in a 100% clearance.

Auctioneers:
Aberdeen & Northern Marts

Stirling Sale

by British Simmental | Feb 20, 2012 | Uncategorised

Judge: Bridget Borlase of Perrywood Simmentals
Many records were broken at Perth at Stirling Bull Sales on 20th February 2012. A breed record average of £6236 was achieved with 119 bulls sold with a 83% clearance, this increased the average from last year up to £1827 for a further 9 more bulls sold.

There were 72 bulls sold in excess of 5,000gns or above and 10 bulls sold in excess of 10,000gns or above.

The sale topped at 19,000gns for Grangewood Baron Junior Champion with a TSI of +100 and an SRI of +102 he is a son of Omorga Volvo and was bred by Mr & Mrs A S & Y A Leedham, and was purchased by Messrs Ward from the Westridge Herd.

Next up went to Islavale Brilliant Overall Male Champion & Senior Champion by Curaheen Vobster bred by Mr W S Stronach was sold to Mr H Brunton, Crudie Simmentals for 18,000gns.

Next to add to the high prices is Team Banker bred by Mr R J Macgregor he is by Team Volvo a homebred bull and out of a homebred cow, Team Kasey, he holds a TRI of +100 and a SRI of +102, and realised 17,000gns and was purchased by John Dykes of the Mendick Herd

Next up 4th Joint Top Price went to Kilbride Farm Bantry bred by by W H Robson & Sons and a son of Cairnview Snazzy, he has a TSI of +83 and a SRI of +78 also sold at 12,000gns, Auchorachan Barry bred by D & R Durno & Sons and is by Saltire Talent who sired the Overall Champion in October 2011 which made 20,000gns, he holds a TSI of +86 and a SRI of +88.

These bulls all sold for 10,000gns, first up, Islavale Bicardi by Glenturk Premier and bred by Mr W S Stronach holding a TSI+60 and SRI+63, this was then followed by Longbeach Bosco Reserve Overall Champion and Intermediate Champion a son of Kilbride Farm Viduka sold by Mr L A Richardson TSI +69 & SRI +65, next to come in was Corskie Basil a son of Ballinalare Farm Nightrider bred by W J & J Green he holds a TSI of +89 and a SRI of +95, up next from the same herd Kilbride Farm Benone by Seaview Prince Charming with a TSI of +88 and SRI+90, the final bull to be sold at 10,000 went to Dellfield Brigadier a Stralongford Trojan son, bred by Mr B Grant and he holds a TRI of +82 & SRI of +82.

It was apparent that the Commerical farmer was more than prepared to pay up to 10,000 for a good bull.

Female Sale Report

Starting the female trade off for Simmentals was the Female Champion Corskie Acqya by Kilbride Farm Tarrant, bred by W J & J Green, this powerful heifer who has been running with lslavale Sabre, is out of the Burghbridge Lane daughter Corskie Raindrop and was sold for 4500gns to Jim and Patricia Goldie, Newbiemains.

From the same home as the Female Champion, Corskie Aspire Reserve Female Champion has gone at 4800gns, another by Tarrant and in calf to Sabre, she is out of another daughter of Burghbridge Lane she went to Mr & Mrs Hawkey, Sowenna.

17 Females sold to a sales average of £2,730.44.

Skerrington Draft 10 sold to a sales average of £1.974.00
Dirnanean Draft 5 sold to a sales average of £2,457.00
Broombrae Draft 5 sold to a sales average of £2,583.00
Derwentwood Draft 4 sold to a sales average of £1,614.00

Auctioneers:
www.uagroup.co.uk

High Performace Simmental X cows

by Iain | Jan 10, 2012 | Uncategorised

Courance, home to the Jack family, is only a few miles north of Lockerbie and 30 minutes from Carlisle. The estate is made up of 5 farms totalling 1400 acres, all of which is farmed in hand. The land is ideal for cows and carries 300 Simmental x cows, 240 Spring calvers and 60 Autumn calvers. There are 8 Simmental stock bulls at present.

60 acres of cereals are grown for feed. The rest of the land is either grazing/cutting grass or rough grazing areas which provide natural shelter for cattle.

300 acres of first cut silage are made, and 200 acres second cut. Contractors are used for silage and combining, all other work is carried out in house.

The enterprise is managed by Raymond McKerlie with one more full time member of staff and as Raymond said “having Simmental cows allows us to run a large enterprise with only 2 staff members due to the Simmental’s quiet nature and ease of handling”.

The Cows are split across two main farm steadings, and each steading has winter housing for over 450 animals. All the commercial cows have high health status as does the pedigree

Spring Calvers – Calving starts on the 3rd of March and is relatively short as the bulls are withdrawn after 10 weeks.The cows having been overwintered on slats on a diet of silage/straw and minerals are moved to deep litter straw courts prior to calving. Once calved, they are moved outside as fast as possible normally 2-3 days post calving, male calves are castrated.

The land offers natural shelter allowing early turn out which in turn maximises profitability and efficiency. Creep is introduced towards the end of August and all calves selected for store sales are vaccinated in the Surecalf programme and sold at UA in Stirling in October and November. It is mainly the earliest calves that are sold at the autumn sales and Raymond said “compared to the Limousin cross calves as we had in the past the Simmentals are a minimum of 40kg heavier when we sell them or at today’s values nearly

£100 per head more”. Younger steer calves are overwintered and sold store in the spring again at UA. All heifer calves are overwintered and grazed the following summer, any not suitable for further breeding are sold as stores and the rest are retained or sold privately to a growing list of repeat customer seeking quality bulling heifers of a known “health status.”

Autumn Calvers – Calving starts at the end of July and again is tight, the bulls being in with the cows only 8 weeks, the Autumn herd was created to ensure a plentiful supply of replacement heifers for the spring herd. Cows calve outside on very bare land. Like the spring calvers the autumn cows are over wintered on slats with a bedded area for the calves, last winter sawdust was used as bedding and proved very successful reducing bedding costs by 20%. Cows are fed silage/straw and minerals and 1kg of barley in a TMR, calves are crept earlier than the spring calves and are self weaned before turnout.

This extremely efficient operation is based on the values of Simmental cross cows being good fertile and natural mothers producing calves that are easily got and then grow very fast.And as  Raymond  said  “Simmental cows work with you, and most importantly, for you.”

Simmentals exceed performance targets in the Harper Adams dairy-bred bull beef unit!

by Iain | Dec 29, 2011 | Uncategorised

Ever since the development of the ‘barley beef’ system by Dr T.R Preston at the Rowettt Research Institute during the late 1950’s there has been an intensive beef system at Harper Adams. The beef unit rears Holstein and Continental cross Holstein bulls from the 400 head dairy unit and provides three resources.
Firstly the beef cattle are used for teaching purposes for students to monitor performance and learn how to select cattle for slaughter. Secondly to provide a research facility for ‘production focused’ experiments for final year BSc students and over the years we have evaluated numerous breeds, feeds and supplements. Thirdly to show ‘best practice and make a profit’. Thankfully we exceed ‘top 1/3rd’ performance targets but this is done with attention to detail with husbandry and management.

We have recently finished a batch of over 30 Simmental x Holstein bulls.

They recorded a DLWG from 3 months old of 1.48kg to slaughter weights of 591kg at 13.3 months old. They killed out at 55.3% with R grade carcasses weighing 327kg having consumed 2.28 tonnes of feed at an FCR of 4.74. This performance significantly exceeds the EBLEX targets for continental bulls and is some of the best performance we have achieved when compared to other continental breeds reared through the Harper Adams beef unit. I would comment that the Simmentals were bred from bulls with top 10% Terminal Indexes with positive Caving Ease Direct EBVs.

This is always the type of beef bull we use on our dairy herd, and is based on all of our research evaluating progeny from beef bulls with different Terminal Indexes.

The performance of the Simmentals is shown in the table below in comparison to the Holstein bulls reared alongside them. The Simmentals as we would expect produced significantly higher DLWGs, slaughter weights, grades and FCRs and were obviously so much ‘easier on the eye’ compared to the Holsteins!

The bulls were weighed at slaughter ‘gut full’ so therefore the killing out percentage appears relatively low. If they had been weighed ‘gut empty’ as per at market or in the abattoir then the killing out would be increased by approximately 2 percentage units.

In 2009/10 our cereal fed Simmental bulls recorded gross margins of £343 per bull which was very respectable. We are of course well aware of what has happened to cereal prices this last year which is going to put pressure on margins for intensive finishing systems but thankfully as I write this article (May 2011) finished beef prices are starting to rise and climb over £3.00/kg which is ‘good news’.

Stirling Autumn Sale – 22,000 Breed Record equalled

by British Simmental | Oct 18, 2011 | Uncategorised

Commercial trade led to a tremendously high clearance of top quality bulls with 38 selling for over 5,000gns. The Simmental breed has the ability to cross with any other breed to produce top quality milky replacements and also have the terminal abilities and DLWG that can match any other breed. The driving of health within the breed gives our customers confidence in the animals led to the best October sale the breed has seen in recent times.

With a jam packed ringside the sale got off to a flying start with Jim & Patricia Goldie’s bull (Newbiemains) Newbiemains Apache by Woodhall Sympa with a TSI of +23 & SRI +25, he sold to D & P Cornthwaite, Lockerbie Dumfries.

Topping the sale and equalling the breed record of 22,000gns was Dirnanean Bradley which also was 1st in his class, his TSI is +32 & SRI +37, he was by Halenook Vargner he sold to the Corskie Herd, Fochabers, Moray this is the second time the McGowan’s have sold to 22,000gns and of the three equal top price bulls sold, the McGowan’s have bred two of them.

Next to sold at 16,000, selling from Mr W G MacPherson, he was 1st in his class and made Reserve Junior Champion Blackford Ben Mhor he was by Curlieu Knight and held a TSI of +23 and SRI of +27, he sold to Mr Richard McCulloch, Overhill House, Armadale, West Lothian, next best selling bull went to the Supreme Champion and Intermediate Champion Corrick Benson by Omorga Tarbuck and bred by Mr C McILwaine, he sold to Mr Brian Grant Druid Temple Farm, Inverness for 12,000gns he held a TSI of +29 and SRI of +32.

Boswell Bullet bred by Douglas Smith 10,000gns he was by Hockenhull Matthew and held a TSI of +32 and a SRI of +37 he sold to Mr T Coghill, Orkney.

The next best price went to Woodhall Brandon he has a TSI of +29 & a SRI of +35 and was bred by Mr H Macaskill and was sold for 8,500 to Mr D Leslie, Redhill Farm, Mosstowie, Elgin.

Next to sell was the Borlase bred bull Sacombe Balmoral he sold for 8,000gns with a TSI of +25 and SRI+30 he went to Ann & Tony Jukes, Swallowhill House, Sandhurst Kent, the next was sold at 7,800gns for the bull bred by Mr J Dykes Mendick Butch (picture to follow) which holds a TSI of +36 and an SRI of +46 and was by Omorga Volvo was purchased by Mr S R Hitchins of Boddington Estates, Burghbridge Bernard (picture to follow), Senior Champion was then sold at 7,500gns he was bred by Mr C J G Clarke and purchased by Mr W J Barclay, Ardiecow Farm, Fordyce, Banff.

Dirnanean Bali-Hi (picture to follow) realised 7,500gns he was bred by Mr F J A McGowan and was by Halenook Vargner he held a TRI of +32 and SRI of +42 he was purchased by Mr & Mrs B Wise, Hall Farm, Skipton on Swale, Thirsk.

Omorga Bermuda (picture to follow) also realised 7,500gns, he was by Omorga Volvo and held an TSI of +28 and a SRI of +36 bred by Mr John Moore was sold to Mr R H Gladstone, Thornhill, Dumfries.

The Stronachs’ sold 2 bulls at 7,200gns, Islavale Bamber (picture to follow) both by Chestermann Varney (TRI +27 SRI +32) was purchased by Bill Aitken, Preston Farm, Linlithgow and Islavale Baxter (picture to follow) (TRI+24 SRI+28) was purchased by Findowie Farms, Madderty, Creiff, Perthshire.

There were 108 bulls sold to a average of £4841.00 which was up £482 on the year for 24 more sold in October.

Female Champions

Female Champion and 1st in Class Strathisla Angelina’s Haka bred by Strathisla Farms. Purchased by Mr Simmers (Doric) for 4,500gns.

Reserve Female Champion and 1st in Class Boars Head Miranda 2nd bred by Mr R J Grenham. Purchased by Mr Hunter, Luckenburn Farm, Salmannan, Falkirk for 2,000gns.

8 sold to a sales average of £2716

Show Winners

Overall Champion and Intermediate Champion Corrick Benson by Omorga Tarbuck bred by Mr C McIlwaine

Reserve Overall Champion and Junior Champion by Auchorachan Barney by Saltire bred by D & R Durno & Sons

Reserve Intermediate Corrick Brutus by Omorga Tarbuck bred by Mr C McIlwaine

Female Champion
Strathisla Angelinas Hake by Omorga Samson bred by Strathisla Farms

Reserve Female Champion
Boars Head Miranda 2nd by Seaview Prince Charming bred by R Grenham

Senior Champion
Burghbridge Bernard by Strathisla Popeye bred by Mr C Clarke

Reserve Senior Champion
Kilbride Farm Buster by Kilbride Farm Newry bred by W H Robson

Reserve Junior Champion Blackford Ben Mhor by Curlieu Knight bred by Mr W G MacPherson

Auctioneers: www.uagroup.co.uk