SHAPELY BULLS, AND MILKY FEMALES, THE KEY TO NEWBIEMAINS SIMMENTALS

Here we feature the Newbiemains herd of Jim & Patricia Goldie, Newbiemains Farm, Annan, Dumfriesshire. Jim will be the ‘main in the middle’ when he judges the pre-show sale of Simmental bulls at Stirling on Sunday February 16th 2025.

The Newbiemains Simmental herd was initially established 20 years ago as a hobby alongside the Goldie family’s dairy herd, but two decades later, it’s the beef cattle that take centre stage at this 280-acre farm, which sits on the Solway coast, near Annan, in Dumfriesshire.

As Jim Goldie prepares to judge the Simmental classes at the upcoming Stirling Bull Sales, next month, he reflects on the development of the Newbiemains herd and the changes within the breed as a whole, over the last two decades.

“It was the dual-purpose aspect that really attracted us to the breed in the first place, and we definitely felt that the breed hadn’t yet reached its full potential. We knew they could produce a good, milky female, and we saw it as a challenge to try and breed more shapely bulls, while maintaining that milkiness. The breed has improved a lot, especially in the last 10 years; the bulls have more shape and better weight gain,” he explains.

The Goldies previously farmed in Ayrshire, before moving to Newbiemains in 1993, where they built up a pedigree milking herd of 250 dairy cows – the second highest yielding herd in Scotland at one point. By 2015, however, spiralling costs and falling milk prices (to 16p per litre), meant the family could no longer justify continuing to milk cows. By that time, they had built up the Simmental herd to 80 cows and the decision was made to sell off the dairy cattle and work on building the beef herd.

Jim adds: “At the time, we thought we’d put off the dairy for a year or two, with the option of going back into it. It was hard for the first few years, but we gradually built up a lot of loyal customers for our bulls and we now sell up to 35 bulls a year, mainly from home. There’s also a constant demand for heifers, which we sell both at home and at sales.”

It’s a family effort at Newbiemains, with Jim and his son Niall carrying out the bulk of the farm work, with help from Jim’s wife Trish, who also runs a nutritional advice company, AgriFeed Solutions, and Niall’s fiancé Abby Forsyth, who works for the agricultural department, based in Dumfries. There’s also Jim and Trish’s son, 13-year-old ‘wee’ Jim, who loves to be involved whenever possible and recently won the overall young handler title at the Stars of the Future event in Stirling. The current stock count at home includes 130 pure cows, along with 46 in-calf heifers and 16 recipients carrying embryos, which are due in April.

From the beginning, the Goldies had a particular type of Simmentals in mind that they aspired to breed, so early purchases included ‘beefy’ females, with particular emphasis on feet and legs.

Jim adds: “We initially bought a few from Trish’s family in Ireland; good, beefy, breedy type females that we thought would work here. We wanted them to be fleshy but still milky and most of the females we’ve bought have bred well for us. We generally find that if the rump structure is right, then that follows through to the feet and legs, and more often than not, if they have a good head, with plenty character, that follows through the body too.

“We took our time building up the herd and were very selective with the females that we bought. The Simmentals are a prolific breed and in the first five years, we got a lot of heifer calves, so that helped build the numbers up.”

Working with dairy cows for so many years, has no doubt influenced Jim’s management style with the Simmentals. Heifers calf at two years old, which they find improves their ability to get back in calf. When milking, the goal was to produce as much milk from forage as possible, and the Goldies use this same principle with the Simmentals:
“Heifers are fed concentrates up until they’re a year old, but after that they only receive forage and minerals. We grow our own wholecrop, so they get that and haylage and minerals through the winter. They are a breed that are good at looking after themselves, so they do well on forage. We re-seed often and have good quality grass here, so we make the most of that, with cows normally out to grass at the end of March. When we can, we outwinter the heifers, and we’ve found that those heifers always do better throughout their lives,” says Jim.

Although the bulk of the calving takes place in February and March, they calve year-round, which allows them to have bulls and heifers available at any time of year, to suit their various customers’ needs. Cattle are brought inside to calve, for easier management with tasks such as dehorning, and all bull calves are kept entire.
“Keeping the bulls entire and having a high-health herd, gives us plenty options when it comes to selling any cattle. Those bulls not making the grade are sold as stores between 8-10 months, at Carlisle or Dumfries,” explains Niall.

“We always ask customers what their purpose is for the bull – we have a variety of types that will do different jobs and we’ve found that being completely honest with customers is the best policy. A Simmental cross heifer has the ability to calf at two years old and look after its calf well, so you get a far quicker return with the Simmental compared to some breeds,” he adds.

All the bulls run together in age-group batches, which the Goldies say helps put muscle on them and ensures that they’re ready to go on and thrive on any farm. Although they have regular customers coming to the farm, they do take bulls to sales if they feel they’re ready at the right time, and sales through the market have peaked at 11,000gns, for Newbiemains Neymar, sold at Stirling, last February. There have been a few more five-figure sellers at markets, while prices at home have peaked at £15,000. Last year, they sold 35 bulls, between the farm and sales, to average £6700.

“All our bulls are brought out the same, whether they’re for sale at home or for Stirling or Carlisle. We aim for consistency and want to breed them to a level standard overall,” says Jim.

In their own breeding programme, bulls that have proved successful at Newbiemains include Skerrington Iceman EX95, which was bought privately after Jim saw him as a calf when he was judging at Ayr Show; Annick Klondyke EX94, another private purchase that had won at Stars of the Future; Woodhall Fantastic EX94, bought privately from Hector McCaskill; and the Roscommon purchase, Moorglen Hillbilly EX91.

Niall says: “All of those bulls bred really well for us. Iceman had great shape, but calved really easily, with a short gestation, while Klondyke was a long, stretchy bull that produced great sons and daughters. We have fantastic females off Fantastic and Hillbilly and we also exported nine bulls to Italy, off those two sires.”

While the Goldies have little faith on the reliability of figures, they do consider the female classification scheme extremely worthwhile, and consequently, they classify all their females.
Jim explains: “The importance of cow families is another element that we’ve brought from the dairy to the beef herd. Our aim has always been to keep them at a certain level, with no bottom end and we feel that we have a really strong female base now, but that’s taken a lot of years and is the result of us being very selective. That’s where classifying comes in – it helps set a standard across the whole breed. To us, that’s far more relevant than the figures on Breedplan.”

The Goldies sell females from home and take a few to the NxtGen sale at Carlisle every year. Two years ago, Newbiemains Ladywag made 9000gns at that sale, while Newbiemains Connie was placed champion and made 8000gns, a few years earlier. Showing helped make Newbiemains a recognisable name in the early days, but the whole team enjoy the social aspect of exhibiting, so it’s something they continue to do. They first won big in 2011, with Darsham Remember Me, which was champion at the Scottish National and the Great Yorkshire and they’ve since won at the Yorkshire with the home-bred Newbiemains Eclypse EX90 and Newbiemains Diamond Jubilee. Last year, the Ex94-classified Newbiemains Icandy, proved a star in the show ring, winning inter-breeds at Stirling, Dumfries and Wigtown, shown with her fourth calf at foot.
Next month, there will be no opportunity to show the two cracking Newbiemains bulls heading to the sale at United Auctions, Stirling (Prague and Packapunch), as Jim will taking starring role himself, as judge. It’s a task he’s looking forward to, and he’s optimistic about the demand for Simmental bulls.

“There are definitely plenty buyers that are willing to pay good money for good bulls; but the quality needs to be there,” he says.

And there’s more for the family to look forward to in 2025, with Niall and Abby’s wedding in the summer and plans to diversify into holiday accommodation, where lucky guests will enjoy the unique and beautiful landscape at Newbiemains, looking across the Solway Firth to Silloth, where the first Simmentals arrived into the UK, in 1970.