EMBRACING crossbreeding, total herd recording and the use of production indexes has positioned the Simmental breed strongly in the United States, according to members of the American Simmental Association who visited Australia recently.
The breed has the second-largest impact on the US cow-calf industry behind Angus.
Seventeen per cent of yearling bulls sold in the US each year are Simmental-influenced genetics, made up of half SimAngus and half pure Simmental.
Association chairman Jim Butcher, Gateway Simmentals, Montana, said a large proportion of the breed's recent success could be attributed to its state-of-the-art evaluation system.
"We at American Simmental are really interested in selecting for things that impact profit and that's where these dollar indexes and self-replacing index come in. We are trying to put values on the important traits," he said.
Total herd inventory recording is a compulsory requirement of stud membership - one of just two breed associations which have done this.
The association has the largest multi-breed inventory in the world with 300,000 new records added each year.
It evaluates all registered Simmental calves but also generates figures for the American Red Angus Association, American Gelbvieh, Canadian Angus, and Canadian Shorthorns, enabling comparison between breeds.
Mr Butcher said the All Purpose Index was particularly bringing financial benefits for commercial producers.
He said the index evaluated the profitability of a cow over her lifetime and was made up of weighted estimated progeny differences for birth weight and calving ease, carcase value, marbling, and muscle yield.
Association director of commercial and industry operations Will Townsend said that utilising science had seen the Simmental breed gain market share over many other breeds in the past 20 years.
"The industry is largely Angus based but there are a large number of producers who are looking to crossbreed and take advantage of hybrid vigour - and the best way to do that is with a British-Continental cross,'' he said. ''The obvious Continental would be Simmental, which positions us well to take advantage of that Angus cow herd.''
"A lot of breed societies in the US have got to where they are or where they want to be with marketing. Ours is almost 100pc based on quality of product and that can only be achieved by science," association director of seedstock and industry operations Luke Keller said.
Lancaster Simmental stud, Meningie, which the group visited last week, is one of three Australian Simmental studs to submit their performance records to the US database. This has enabled their sale bulls to be compared on a database of more than 11 million cattle, many ranking in the top 5-10pc of a range of economic traits.
It has been possible for potential buyers to directly compare the weighted estimated progeny differences of Lancaster's purebreds and composites - not possible with Australia's Breedplan system.
* Full report in Stock Journal, December 4, 2014 issue.
Catherine Miller
Stock Journal's livestock editor and South East correspondent.
Stock Journal's livestock editor and South East correspondent.
