August 2010
Welcome to the first Spring Newsletter for 2010 and we hope that so far the weather, calving/lambing is all going well.
STUD GOSSIP
Last week Emma Borlaise and myself had the pleasure of visiting an old stalwart of the breed, Werner Gut at Kaponga, Taranaki. Emma, who was a Stud Starta applicant, is keen to mate her Friesian Dairy cows with Simmental and milk them. If you have had enough rain then spare a thought for the Guts who have averaged an inch of rain a day this month. Up at Kaponga, under Mt Taranaki, they measure the rain in metres!! Werner now in his 80’s is just as passionate about Simmental as he was when he started in the early 70’s. His son Jason now runs the 110 ha dairy farm and will milk 100 Pure Simmental cows this year as well as about 8 Hinterwald cows. The Hinterwald breed of cattle developed through a century long process of selection on extreme mountainous slopes in the Black Forest of Germany. Physically it is the smallest breed of cattle in Central Europe and like Simmental are dual purpose and have similar colour. Over the years Werner has imported a dairy strain of Simmental from Austria but has endeavoured to maintain the beef qualities of the breed as well.
BRAINSTORM
On the 2nd of August Shane McManaway facilitated a meeting with Council on the future direction of Simmental NZ. Also in attendance were Alex Clark and Roger Bedford from Landcorp, Daniel Absolom, Malcolm Entwisle, Jon Knauf, Bruce Orr and Anna Scott. The input from these people was invaluable and very much appreciated. The bones of a plan were formulated and council are now putting the padding in place.
SEMEN SALES
Council are keen to get a Semen Sale Register up and running on the website. With the mating season coming up, now is the time to have a look in that semen bank as you get a free listing of any presently registered AI sires if actioned before the end of September. Fill out the form below with the details. Also if registering a new imported sire part of the $200 fee is that you get a free listing on the website if you wish to sell semen.
We remind you that to register calves the sire has to have a DNA profile on file with the Society. If you are using semen from commercial distributors check that this has been done so there are no surprises.
ILR2
This is the new version of our recording system that is being developed by ABRI. If you have some niggles with the old BREEDPLAN system or the service offered, now is the time to let the office know to get them changed. Example – Are you happy with the fate codes? Can they be simplified?
NEM MEMBERS
We welcome Amorita Volschenk from Papakura, Stephen Chesswas from Te Puke, Simon McRae from Waimate and Michael O’Reilly from Invercargill to the Simmental fold.
WEBSITE
Sarah Hammond has taken on managing our Website so if you have some news/articles/Simmental success stories we want to hear them. Either email Sarah at or send it into the office.
SIMMENTAL OPPORTUNITIES.
- Rissington Breedline are holding their annual yearling bull auction on October 1st at 1pm at Rissington. This date was left off your calendar of events. The World Post Congress tour party will also be at Rissington on their sale day which gives the opportunity to share goals/fibs! etc with some overseas breeders.
- John and Penny Scott are putting their complete Puketawa Stud females up for sale in early April 2011. The Puketawa Stud with a herd number of 208 makes it one of the original Simmental Studs in NZ. The females will be auctioned in pairs – you select one and John and Penny will keep the other.
- We have had an enquiry from Paul Tuckley who is the Trade Development Manager for the British Consulate in Auckland. He is currently doing some research for a company, Boddington Estates, who own the Stirling Simmental Stud in UK (www.sterlingsimmentals.co.uk). The company is keen to export semen and embryos and are looking for a commercial partner in NZ. Representatives from Stirling Simmentals will be in NZ at the end of September so if you are interested please contact me at the office or email Paul directly –
ACTION SUMMARY – OLD
- Reminder of the Dairy Bull Auction. Entries close September 5th. Must be BVD and EBL tested plus photo.
- For calves to become registered their sires need to be DNA profiled.
- ADL’s are due in by the end of August – 4 Days time!!
ACTION SUMMARY – NEW
- If you have Semen for sale – Fill out the form attached.
- Any suggestions to improve BREEDPLAN send them into the office.
- Any articles of interest for the website send to Sarah or the Office.
Alastair Miln
Project Manager