South African Simmental

With extreme conditions in the country, and with a few years of drought, we have learnt a lot of lessons regarding cattle farming. We have seen the importance of functional efficiency within the Simmentaler breed and how we can improve this by selecting more strictly for specific types of animals. The industry has shown us that the animals which are slightly more rangy and higher on the legs are the animals that do not have good constitution and they didn’t reproduce.

In South Africa we select bulls that have good masculinity and have good walking abilities, with good width throughout the body and good capacity. The females must have good femininity, good capacity and must be well wedge shaped with well-balanced udders. By selecting animals like this we are proud to say that South Africa has won the online ‘Champion of the World’ bull competition for two consecutive years (2019 & 2020). In September 2020, a A South African record price of R420,000 (£19, 885) was reached for the bull Vooruitzicht Rudolf JH1636. He would typically be what we strive for in a Simmentaler bull; well-balanced with exceptional length of body, good masculinity and good hind legs. 2020’s most expensive Simmentaler cow was Tendele Zolani LN16120 who was sold with her bull calf for an excellent price of R130,000 (£6,155). Again this is what we would be looking for in females with her having good length of body, very good femininity, a good udder and excellent capacity.

As we all know the Simmentaler is the biggest dual-purpose breed in the world. This means that in certain countries in the world they are still used for their milk, where in other countries, such as South Africa, the Simmentaler is used as a terminal cross to add milk to your replacement heifers. But the biggest reason remains to add beef to your herd. In South Africa the Simmentaler is one of the top choices of breeds to use in a cross-breeding program. Many commercial farmers make use of Simmentaler bulls to increase fertility on their heifers whilst adding milk to the herd at the same time.

It is also very common that commercial breeders who use a Simmentaler bull in their cross-breeding programs easily gain up to 30kg more on any commercial weaner. With the weaner price at R35/kg (£1.66) that is a fantastic R1050 (£49.95) more profit.

The most breeds in South Africa are early to medium maturing animals where the Simmentaler is a late maturing animal. The difference between these two is that an early maturing animal will be fed for 90-110 days to be in slaughter condition, where the Simmentaler will be fed for up to 180 days. That is a benefit when there is a sudden decrease in the market - you can still feed the animals because they put on beef and not only fat, where the early maturing animals will then become too fat. The Bonsmara breed would be the largest numerical breed in South Africa, and it would be typical for a Simmentaler cross bull calf at five months to be weighing at 50% of his mother’s weight.

South Africa has nine provinces which vary from Karoo veld which is very dry and warm with an annual rainfall of only 250mm per year, and then we have the Western Cape which is a winter rainfall area

with plenty of grazing. We have registered stud breeders in every province in South Africa and as far as Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

The South African Simmentaler is a large-framed animal with a mature cow weight of 680kg. In some of the areas of the country the frame of the animal will be much smaller and go down to 550kg. This is because harder conditions and the environment will decrease the frame size of animals. The most breeders are found in areas where the annual rainfall is approximately 450-700mm per year. Mostly these areas have sweet veld through the summer months and crop fields are commonly used to get through the winter times when food is limited.

September and October are the months with the most Simmentaler auctions. If we look at proper stud bulls, the prices will vary anything from R70,000 – R300,000 (£3,315 – £14,205). Our stud breeders who present their own production auctions will typically sell bulls at the age of 2 ½ - 3 years old.

Registered bulls that have passed the structural correctness inspection but are just of commercial value will be sold for R55, 000 (£2,605) per bull. above mentioned data will be discussed with the breeder and on how to improve his/her specific genetic trends.

The Simmentaler Society is one of the very few Societies in South Africa that has compulsory annual inspections for all registered stud breeders. With these inspection visits I have a look at the Calfbook animals (animals that have not yet passed the inspection for structural correctness) and I will either cull them or pass them. After the inspection I will sit with the farmer and we will have a look at his Genetic Trends and where we can improve the herd’s EBV’s (Estimated Breeding Values) by using a new bull. We will also have a look at the Completeness of Performance report of the herd (completeness of weights and other traits) and try to improve everywhere we can.

Females with a great pedigree and that are of high quality with EBVs that are on or above the breed average will sell for R45, 000 (£2,130) and can go up to R130,000 (£6,155). The selling age of females varies anything from one year old heifers with the potential to become a top stud female, to 8-year-old cows that will be used in an embryo flushing program. Fertility is a very important aspect for the Society. Every year in September we will have a look at all of the active females on our database that haven’t calved for the past 730 days and as well as heifers 39 months and older without a calf on record. These females will be cancelled on the database, unless provided with the calving records.

All measurable data such as the weights, birth notifications, cancellations and hip heights are sent to the Society office, then it will be uploaded onto Breedplan’s registration system called ILR2 (International Livestock Registration) where all the data is processed and converted into the necessary EBV. When the Technical Advisor does his annual breeder inspections, the South Africa has 33 different beef breeds. At this stage the Simmentaler Society has 195 active registered breeders that are spread across the South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. With 28,948 active animals on our system we are about the 6th biggest breed in South Africa with the Bonsmara as the biggest breed.