SIMMENTAL’S
DUAL-PURPOSE
TRAITS PAYING
DIVIDENDS
AT BALLYSTRONE
Commercial feature on Allister Calvin, County Londonderry who is seeing the strengths of the Simmental breed in producing suckler replacements, and in bull beef finishing.
County Londonderry farmer Allister Calvin initially bought a Simmental bull to produce suckler replacements, but quickly realised that the breed’s dual-purpose traits also delivered satisfactory results in his bull beef finishing unit.
“The Simmental is a good all-rounder, offering beneficial maternal and terminal traits,” said Allister who farms in partnership with his father William at Ballystrone on the outskirts of Coleraine.
The father and son duo have been crossing Simmental on their Limousin and Belgian Blue cross-bred cows. “The Simmental cross is the ideal suckler cow with good conformation, sound legs and feet, a nice temperament, great mothering ability and plenty of milk.
“Over the years we have boosted our profitability by selling surplus heifers as replacements to repeat customers. Heifers are sold at approximately thirteen-months-old at a price equivalent to that of a finished animal.”
“Our top performing bulls are ‘flying’ and can achieve 1.21 kilos of carcase gain per day, which is equivalent to 1.46 kilos daily liveweight gain from birth.”
Allister and William have been producing bull beef for Foyle Meats since 2002. Meticulous records confirm that the Simmental also has a lot to offer when it comes to beef production. “Our Simmental carcases are averaging 403 kilos deadweight and achieving U-2+ grades at around 15.2 months of age. That’s an average 0.88 kilo of carcase gain per day,” explained Allister.
“Our top performing bulls are ‘flying’ and can achieve 1.21 kilos of carcase gain per day, which is equivalent to 1.46 kilos daily liveweight gain from birth.”
He continued: ”Meat plants have introduced weight restrictions meaning heavy, lean carcases are penalised. We are under pressure to finish our bulls lighter, and it can be a big challenge to get enough fat cover on them at a younger age. The Simmental is ideal as it produces good fat cover at around 400 kilos.”
Breedplan figures are an essential selection tool when it comes to selecting stock bulls for the farm’s suckler enterprise. Bulls are always bought on above average figures.
Simmental bulls at Ballystrone have included the April 2011 Omorga Casper – a full brother to Omorga Volvo – bought privately from Harry and John Moore’s herd in Beragh, County Tyrone.
“I like a muscly bull with good conformation and breed character,” added Allister who paid 8,500gns to secure Omorga Eli at Stirling in October 2014. Sired by Ashland Brandy and bred from a Cleenagh Flasher dam, the February 2013 bull is still working in the herd. Eli is ranked in the breed’s top 1% for eye muscle area +6.0, and top 5% for milk +10, terminal production index +101 and self-replacing index +112.
For almost twenty years Allister worked full-time as a beef and sheep adviser for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Enterprise in Northern Ireland. He recently gave up the role to return to the family farm.
“…cross-bred Simmental cows are hardy and can withstand outwintering in the hills. We like medium-sized cows that can hold condition easily. Longevity is another added benefit of the Simmental!”
In addition to farming 750 acres, which includes 500 acres of hill land and 25 acres of winter cereals, William and Allister also run an agricultural contracting business. “We’ve made a few changes to the structure of the farm. Suckler cow numbers have been reduced from 70 to 40, and in May 2020 we started milking 60 cows through a Lely A5 robot,” explained Allister.
Suckler cows are calved in the spring and autumn. “Cows are calved at home and then moved to the hill. The cross-bred Simmental cows are hardy and can withstand outwintering in the hills. We like medium-sized cows that can hold condition easily. Longevity is another added benefit of the Simmental!”
Historically the calves were creep fed, but that system has changed now that the suckler herd is predominantly grazed on the hill farm. Allister explained: “Most of the land grazed by the sucklers during the summer months is classified as environmentally sensitive and supplementary feeding is not allowed. This places even more emphasis on the cow to provide enough milk to rear a good calf. Our Simmental cows having plenty of milk and the calving weaning weights aren’t much behind those achieved when we were creep feeding.”
Cattle are finished on a ration comprising of home-grown barley and a balanced blend. The autumn born bull calves are housed at the beginning of August in preparation for slaughter at Christmas. “We are aiming to achieve slaughter weights by sixteen-months of age. Simmental progeny are growthy and easily fleshed. Other continental breeds have the growth rates but they struggle to achieve the desired fat cover within the time limit.”
Heifers selected as herd replacements are retained or sold privately to other suckler farmers. Everything else is finished for beef.
Omorga Eli has been easily calved in the suckler herd, and with AI straws collected on-farm William and Allister are planning to use the semen on some of the Holstein cows. “We’re using sexed semen to breed dairy heifers, and we also have a batch of Holstein cows P’d in-calf to Eli, as we’d like to use the cross-bred dairy progeny for the bull beef finishing system. We finish around 140 dairy-bred calves annually, and ideally we’d like to breed our own to reduce the number of bought in animals.”
