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IMPROVING THE SUCKLER HERD
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 sold
many top class steers, I thought if I crossed the Simmental female with a
good Shorthorn bull and kept the females from that, it would be a move in
the right direction. This I did and was very happy with our cows from that
cross. I then decided I should go a bit further and use an out-cross again
--but what? So after reading a lot and talking to some of my farmer
friends from the South and, having read about the results of similar
breeding in the USA using South Devons, I
decided to give the breed a try.
I set off for the South and spent several days looking around at Red Devons and
South Devons before deciding that the
Sou I think the South Devon has a very important role to play in the future of the beef industry and the opportunity is there. Go out and take it, but only with quality bulls!
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A Personal Account
Snaigow Farm is situated in the foothills of the Grampian Mountains and is all North facing. We grow around 600 acres of barley and wheat per season and let 40 acres for potatoes and a similar amount for peas. The farm can be best described as marginal. Our main enterprise is cattle and the one I think it is fair to say, that we are best at.
We
used to run 256 cows but when BSE came along we reduced our cows to 175.
We are now back up to over 200. When our industry started to recover from
the BSE problems, I believed if we were to make any headway in the cattle
industry we had to breed beef cattle from beef cattle and the by-product
from the dairy has to be a thing of the past. Let's be honest, the dairy
cross was only a cheap and plentiful source of replacements and with the
increase in the Holstein, did nothing to improve the shape, fertility or
longevity of our cows. So, after looking into what was available at an
affordable price, I decided a hybrid cow would have a lot to commend it.
Having bred a lot of good cows over the years from the Simmental and 
th Devon was what I wanted, so I bought two bulls
(from GROVE FARMS) and headed North again. 18 months later I must say I was very happy with what I had done. The type of cow I wanted was on its way and I was sure I had done the right thing. Our steer calves sold for £550 at 14 months old and £525 at 12 months old. The heifers I have retained and they have the appearance of being good breeding females which I think I will return to the Simmental bull, but our options are open. The advantages of this cross-breeding is to get the maximum daily live weight gain without trying to produce another breed. We will end up, I am sure, with a cow herd that will be docile and easy to handle, will milk well and be good mothers and have enough size and quality to cross with Simmental bulls to give a very saleable end product.