EDMONTON – Murray Jacobson was a young veterinary medicine student in 1967 when the first Simmental cattle set foot on Canadian soil.
Forty years later, the president of the Canadian Simmental Association is a proud supporter of the Swiss breed that helped change the look of the North American beef industry.
“They were more of a dairy type because in Europe they were dual purpose for milk and beef. They are beef animals in Western Canada,” he said during the national Simmental show held at Northlands Farmfair Nov. 8.
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“We made them fit our environment and the needs of the commercial industry.”
The modern North American Simmental comes in a range of red and black and about half the herd is polled.
When the first bulls arrived, the Canadians crossed them with foundation Hereford and Angus females.
The first cross was typically a Simmental bull with a British cow to produce a halfblood. The halfblood heifer was bred to a fullblood bull to produce an animal that was 3/4 Simmental.
The upgrading continued for several more generations until a 7/8ths female was produced that could be registered as a purebred with the association. A bull must be 15/16ths pure Simmental to be registered.
There are herds that continue the fullblood strain but more of those producers are working on introducing a polled gene, said Jacobson.
Some argue breeding for one trait like polled or colour takes away from other desirable qualities.
“Some say if you take the horns off you take the performance out, but that is not a limiting factor,” he said.
Jacobson sees the last 40 years as a path toward genetic improvement of the breed. He also extols the value of cross breeding to get hybrid vigour and a beef animal that suits the commercial industry.
He is also glad to see all the breeds swing away from the fads of the 1980s when bigger was better. The cattle became too tall and too long without much benefit to the commercial beef producer who wanted cattle with a good rate of gain and cows that could produce lots of milk.
The modern Simmental is still a beefy animal, but it no longer towers over the heads of the handlers.
As for the next 40 years, Jacobson sees the science of genetics strengthening. The bovine genome has been discovered and with new knowledge an animal’s genetic potential can be predicted at an earlier age.
“It’s not a guessing game anymore,” he said.
At the association level, Jacobson sees producers able to combine new DNA information with facts gathered on expected progeny differences (EPDs) feed trials and ultrasound for meat quality.
“The DNA markers are not the end in themselves. You have to blend them with your EPDs,” he said.
