Simmental ticks all the boxes

And, for Alister Jack who farms 1400 acres on the Courance Estate in Dumfriesshire, that means the Simmental which is equally renowned for its superior mothering characteristics and its ability to produce good big, growthy calves.

"Simmental cows and Simmental cross cows really do tick all the boxes," said Alister, who runs 300 such cows on the Courance Estate near Lockerbie.

"They really are the ultimate dual-purpose breed as they produce bulls that do everything in terms of weight gain while the heifers can either be retained for breeding or sold on for future breeding.

"There is no better breed than the Simmental as a foundation cow and people are fast coming to realise that, especially now there is more emphasis on health and retaining closed herds. Simmentals don't have nearly the same health problems as many other breeds and they're also so much more fertile."

Of the 300 cows on the estate, 60 are calved late summer outside, with the remainder calving in the spring on straw-bedded courts. Last year, such was the fertility, that 13 sets of twins were born, with less than 5% of the herd barren and that was with the bulls running for a maximum of 10 weeks in the spring and eight weeks in the autumn.

More importantly though, with few if any calving difficulties, the cows last so much longer, with some of the females now into double figures and still producing good healthy calves.

Both the pedigree and the commercial Simmental cows are easily fed too, with both herds wintered inside on a silage, straw and mineral mixture up until a month before calving when 0.5kg of home-grown bruised barley is included in the ration.

"I don't farm Simmentals for sentimental reasons, I really do believe in their dual characteristics. They're also easy calved and they've got great temperaments which is so important when you have to work with them," added Alister, who farms with his wife Ann and have three children – Emily (22) who has just moved south to start her first job, and Alice (20) and Will (15) who are both in full-time education.

Equally notable, is the fact that farm manager, Raymond McKerlie, who attends to the cattle with his brother Neil, also favours the Simmental breed. "I've worked with numerous other breeds and crosses in the past and I definitely prefer the Simmental because they're good shapely cattle to look at and they're easy to work with," he said. "One man can easily work with Simmentals – it's only when herd numbers increase that you need more people."

Alister took over Courance from his mother Jean Tulloch and his step father John in 2003. At that stage the business was home to a 1000 commercial ewe flock and 100 suckler cows.

With Alister's love of beef cattle it was never going to remain as such though and he immediately set about building new cattle sheds and introducing Simmental crosses. In the early days, 125 such cows and heifers were bought privately from Aberdeenshire livestock agent, Philip Simmers, with the intention of selling the progeny finished. Unfortunately, he was unable to source other Simmental crosses and consequently ended up buying 130 Limousin crosses from Brian Atkinson, Scratchmere Scar, purely to increase numbers.

Initially, all heifers were put to a Limousin bull with all cows bulled to a Simmental, but the Limousin cross females or indeed their progeny, were no match for the Simmental crosses.

"The Limousin cross heifers were just so much wilder and they didn't have nearly the amount of milk. The Limousin cross calves were just as wild too and they didn't grow the same either, so we're in the process of phasing them out in preference of Simmental crosses," Alister said.

In saying that, he was also the first to admit the Simmental is not the ideal breed to finish in Dumfriesshire as the majority of buyers prefer Charolais crosses. Therefore, he's currently selling the Simmental bullocks as suckled calves through United Auctions, Stirling, with last year's batch cashing in at 220p per kg at 380-390kg, with the heifers kept on for another year either to retain as herd replacements or sell privately to a growing number of producers seeking Simmental cross heifers to breed from.

The estate has also introduced a pedigree herd, in a bid to produce home-bred bulls to use on the commercial herd and bulls and heifers to sell at future society sales. At present, there are about 50 pedigree females, bought either privately, or at the bull sales at Stirling from the Hazelden, Skerrington, Ravensworth and Dirnanean herds.

But, while Alister is relatively new to the pedigree circuit, his newly acquired cattle have already made their presence felt in the show ring, with Courance Rosebud, having picked up several rosettes at local events last year for the herd's first year in the show ring.

The boys also have high hopes for the bull sales at Stirling in Feburary, next year where they hope to venture with the first batch of home-bred pedigree bulls.

Long-term, Alister aims to build the pedigree herd up to 100-120 cows, with the commercial enterprise running around 225-250 Simmental cross cows. Commercial heifers will be bulled to an Angus to calve at two-years of age while the cows would mostly be put to Simmental bulls to breed heifers with the remainder to a Charolais to produce good Charolais cross calves for a ready market. Pedigree heifers however, would nevertheless be bulled to a Simmental to calve at three years of age.

With more than adequate shed facilities to house all the cattle, Alister has also discovered how to ease the stress associated with speaning thereby reducing disease levels in calves. By introducing natural weaning – when calves instinctively spean themselves off their mothers in a shed because they've reached a certain size and can no longer get through the creep gate to their mothers but can still see and smell them in the next door pen – not only do they continue to eat their regular concentrate, forage ration, they are less stressed and continue to gain weight.

Alister added: "We've noticed a huge difference both for the cows and the calves by introducing this system. The cows are less stressed because they can see their calves and so too are the calves and as a result there is less disease."

"We've also found that the calves end up weaning themselves at five months instead of six and they're heavier as yearlings. Our calves were 30-40kg heavier at a year old on natural weaning compared to speaning them the usual way."

Unfortunately, Courance will not be selling at this year's bull sales, but the team will looking to buy an Aberdeen Angus for the heifers and a Charolais bull, to add to the herd's eight Simmental and two Charolais stockbulls.

"We look to buy a good all round bull with good conformation, size, feet and legs. We do look at figures and look to buy a bull with easy calving and good milk figures, but our eye takes precidence – you can't always rely purely on the figures," concluded Alister.