CharcoalWally
Member
- Location
- West of Scotland
And therein lies the rub. The Simmental was brought into this country in 1970 as a large framed tall breed in it's natural form to go across a lot of small cows that were no longer producing a suckled calf of an acceptable weight. And this was a job they were very good at. So this is a Simmental displaying what we might call it's natural breed character , tall , milky maternal cattle.
In Ireland , largely I suspect due to different market requirements , Simmentals were bred away from this and more towards muscle , width of top , width behind and [well they thought] more shape behind. I would personally argue with this. It's easier to make an arse look bigger on a small bull.
This change in type comes at a price. Somethings gotta give , and sadly , often it's milk. Therefore the Simmental becomes something it wasn't meant to be - it loses it's breed character.
For me personally , not a positive step.
In Ireland , largely I suspect due to different market requirements , Simmentals were bred away from this and more towards muscle , width of top , width behind and [well they thought] more shape behind. I would personally argue with this. It's easier to make an arse look bigger on a small bull.
This change in type comes at a price. Somethings gotta give , and sadly , often it's milk. Therefore the Simmental becomes something it wasn't meant to be - it loses it's breed character.
For me personally , not a positive step.
