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Simmental: The 2
nd
Most Powerful Breed in the US
EMBRACING crossbreeding, total herd recording and the use of production indexes has positioned the
Simmental breed strongly in the United States.
The Simmental 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.
Simmental Association chairman Jim Butcher 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.
The Simmental 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 and American Gelbvieh, 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, carcass value,
marbling, and muscle yield.
Association director of commercial and industry operations Will Townsend said that utilizing 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 vigor - 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.''
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