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Simmental and disposition

R

rancherfred

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 3, 2007
Messages
444
Location
Western Nebraska
We have a base RA herd and have been using some red Sim for crossbreeding. I purchased a bull three years ago out of STF Dominance and one out of Top Gun. They had a day long trailer ride to get to our place. When we let them out they were on the prod and wouldn't let us get close to them. They were charging the fence and acting like real idiots. The next morning wasn't any better. It took me quite a while to get them loaded to go out to pasture because they kept charging me. I was pretty concerned with them, but when I pulled them in the fall they were as calm as they could be. I never had another problem with them. The offspring was another story. After calving the first group of heifers out of those bulls, I can say that all of the STF Dominance heifers are going to have to be culled because of their disposition. I already culled the bull group out of the Dominance bull because of disposition.

I have used Red Caesar, Beef Maker, and Remington Red Label. The Red Caesar calves have not been a problem and I have been pretty happy with their disposition. In general I would say that they are probably a little more nervous and high headed than the RA cattle are but not so bad that I have had problems dealing with them. The cattle out of the Dominance bull are an entirely different story.

Does the Simmental breed have its own EXT? Are there lines that have more problems with disposition? I think we have to cross breed since we are commercial producers, but I am really not interested in ruining the disposition of my herd just to get a boost in growth.
 
Years ago we had a few Simmental cows and used Antonius and Great Guns Ferdinand. Really thick, easy feeding offspring. Kept the heifers back and always carried a stick or fork when working them during calving. That got old pretty quick, since the other grade Simmi cows were easy to work with, very docile.
 
About 30-35 years ago a nationally prominent Angus breeder near here procured some Simmental cows to breed to their "prize" bull genetics. The ranch foreman was less than pleased with their evil, wicked, mean, and nasty dispositions, and after rebuilding all the pens and corrals, and when his broken leg healed up, the Simmy cows were dispatched with a 30.06. That was the end of the great Simmental Experiment.
 
loomixguy said:
About 30-35 years ago a nationally prominent Angus breeder near here procured some Simmental cows to breed to their "prize" bull genetics. The ranch foreman was less than pleased with their evil, wicked, mean, and nasty dispositions, and after rebuilding all the pens and corrals, and when his broken leg healed up, the Simmy cows were dispatched with a 30.06. That was the end of the great Simmental Experiment.
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About forty-five years ago, an older neighbor got out of his pickup to check the sex of a newborn Shorthorn calf. The momma cow made a run at the rancher, and he hurriedly jumped back into the pickup. The cow was hot on his heels and also jumped into the cab before he could get the door shut. She broke off the steering wheel as she hungrily sought out her subject. He had to get out the passenger door before she let him alone. Fortunately he found a pair of vice grips to steer the pickup back home. He went into the house to get a gun to shoot the cow. Cooler heads prevailed, and the man's son proclaimed, "Don't shoot her, Dad. If we can just get her to the sale barn she'll at least be worth $200." They did accomplish the task, and they did get the money. :wink:
 
loomixguy said:
About 30-35 years ago a nationally prominent Angus breeder near here procured some Simmental cows to breed to their "prize" bull genetics. The ranch foreman was less than pleased with their evil, wicked, mean, and nasty dispositions, and after rebuilding all the pens and corrals, and when his broken leg healed up, the Simmy cows were dispatched with a 30.06. That was the end of the great Simmental Experiment.
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There are plenty of evil, wicked , mean and nasty dispositions in all breeds, and in my experience (we have plenty of Red Angus and Simmental) the Simmies are at least as well behaved as the Angus. I would maintain the only time Simmental breeding hurts a cow is when she doesn't have any in her.
I would expect that the Simmental breed does have it's version of the EXT line, I would think every breed does.
 
My dad raised purebred Simmental cattle about 25 -30 years ago. I always remembered when we would go out to weight the bull calves more times than not we were getting chased either to the back of the pickup or in the cab. Hired hand at the time had a cow chase him into the back of the pickup and she followed him all the way thought the back sliding glass.

I just bought two SIMM/Angus cross bulls this year. They seem to be really quite bulls so we will se how the turn out.
 
Most of our herd is Sim/Angus or Hereford/Angus F1's and all of our bulls are 1/2 to 3/4 Simmental with one Purebred and a Couple herefords to put on the purebred angus cows and I tagged all but 2 of my calves this year, which would be 99.33%. I tag at birth and give a shot of Alpha 7 and band the bull calves, so i dont think cross breeding with simmental is the problem. Might be your supplier of the simmental genetics.
 
It probably all depends upon your situation. Not owning any land I think a little less than desirable disposition might me desired. I have to run my cows on leased ground year around. I guess if I don't want to handle her I probably won't have to worry about anybody else wanting to either. :-) Those kinds of cows tend to keep pregnant, usually raise a good calf, and you don't have to worry about someone else loading them up.
 
flyingS said:
It probably all depends upon your situation. Not owning any land I think a little less than desirable disposition might me desired. I have to run my cows on leased ground year around. I guess if I don't want to handle her I probably won't have to worry about anybody else wanting to either. :-) Those kinds of cows tend to keep pregnant, usually raise a good calf, and you don't have to worry about someone else loading them up.
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That way you know a cowboy stole them if they are gone. :wink:

I've got some cows like that I take them to what we call the sin pasture good fences and good corral.Even the wild bunch knows their whipped.
 
I bought to sim angus bulls last year one is a dream on son the other a red top son the dream on son is calm as a old dog on a hot day the red top son is ok till you start sorting on him. when we loaded him up to turn out he took both dad and me thank goodness he still respects a gate even if it is just a cheap corral panel wired with baling wire .neighbor bought a blacktop son a couple of years ago from the same breeder had same problem. have owned several sim bulls never had a problem before.
 
We have really had good success with the Dream Ons' to. The couldn't bge much quieter. Mel
 
Two years ago I purchased three 3/4 brothers from a sale when they arrived here two stayed a on the fight till they were finally sold six weeks later one was ok they were Simmental
That same year a neighbor asked me to Ai his Simmental cows which he has built up since the mid 70s he loved his Simmental cows and bragged about how gentle they were. If he could get near them he thought they were great eating hay they were nice but when he worked them he had his alley and runway built so he could stand outside of them and not get in the pens with them his alleys are 7 ft solid tall. Then cows worked just like one expected for a exotic no cooperation never relaxed. However we could manage them. Btw he bred them to reg angus bulls.
My idea of raising Sim-Angus got put on the back burner I remind my self and others I got on the Chianina kick in the 80 s. been there done that.
 
We have simmie cross and get along with them fine...Only thing I might suspect is that they might be alittle slower in getting up to nurse. And that's just a guess on my part calving....
 
Simmental cows bred simmental,the heifers off of them some will have attitude when they calve.Those ones are culled after they raise there calf.Simmental cows bred hereford,the heifers off of them will generally be very quiet animals and excellent mothers,and the calves off of them will really push the scales down come fall.
 
The Kosmo Kid bought some nice black bred heifers a year ago. They were 1/4 Simmental and 3/4 Angus. He hauled one of them to the sale today, and I hope she doesn't hurt anyone. She is a rip. She might be bred, and she might not, but we don't care. Life is too short to have her on the ranch. I even called the local locker plant, hoping she could go directly to a "harvest situation," but there is no inspector on duty today because of Veteran's Day. They also have all the cows they need for the rest of the week. I don't think we will try that cross-breeding experiment again.
 
I think the word "Simmental" could be replaced by "any breed name" and the stories would be the same. We ran a simmental herd for many years and had virtually no cows with an atitude, but part of that was because any that did got a great big O on their back and both sides and went to town for slaughter.

I have had interesting experiences with every breed that I have worked with, whether it be in my herd or the neighbours, or in the feedlot. The one that stands out the most was a Charlois cow that put me on top of a row of bales and kept me there for the better part of an hour. Keeps life interesting as long as one doesn;t get hurt. I also had a Hereford cow that broke both my legs one spring. Needless to say, both got the "open" sign!!!

I think temperment is due to both breeding, and how they have been handled. It is not specific to any one breed.
 
We got into a line of Angus bloodlines that the cows turned out wild. Maybe wild and crazy. :? Cattle here have every reason NOT to get that way, so it wasn't the way they were handled--and I can guarantee that, so it was the bloodlines. Mr. FH is pretty much a 'cow whisperer'. Likes cattle handled slow and easy without any dust.
And no, it wasn't EXT bloodlines...

We sold some of those bred females as 'opens' so no one would have to handle them beyond finishing. We had been buying our bulls from the same place so that, as far as we were concerned, was where the problem originated. We noticed a couple bulls weren't as nice as we like, but didn't notice them all being that way. Whatever it was, really passed on through the females.

Very disappointing. And there was no Simmental in these cattle. Up til then
we had a nice, gentle set of Angus cows. :???:
 
About 40 years ago, when this exotic craze was just startig to get hot my brother and i bought two simental cross bulls. These bulls were gentle enough, The cows that were their ofspring were also gentle, but they acted almost like Holseins. Get them in the working corral, they would just stand there pretty as you please, then when you were not looking they would try to jump the fence, no matter how tall. It is hard to say what these may have been crossed with because the AI fellows would cross an exotic with anything just to get an exotic bull to sell.

They did put some size in our herd but we thought their calves to big at birth and loggy and slow. A few years later we started to cross with Gelbvie. We wanted to start a Criss-cross, but you know how that turns out.
 
here's a theory--not mine and I disremember whose:
"English" cattle were run 'out'---had plenty of chance to express wildness and rank ones were culled.

'continental' cattle---a lot of them, the 'barn' was the downstairs and the 'house' was upstairs----around people continually, right from birth, almost pets, no fear of humans, enclosures, hence no chance to develop and express honky traits, therefore not culled for disposition.

Bring them over here, run them 'out', and it showed up.
 

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