curaheen vio what to expect

p dogg

Hello all, i have a curaheen apostle heifer pbnr and i hope to ai her to curaheen vio because i quite like the look of him. The heifer isn't overly tall but very long and wide, and i would be planning to calve her down at 30 months. I would be hoping basically to breed a very good stockbull for our commercial suckler herd. I would be very grateful if anyone has any replies about vios offspring purebred or commercial, this is my first post on boards so hope it went alright, avid simmental fan, p dogg

greysides

Welcome to the forum.

Genghis Cant

p dogg wrote: »

Hello all, i have a curaheen apostle heifer pbnr and i hope to ai her to curaheen vio because i quite like the look of him. The heifer isn't overly tall but very long and wide, and i would be planning to calve her down at 30 months. I would be hoping basically to breed a very good stockbull for our commercial suckler herd. I would be very grateful if anyone has any replies about vios offspring purebred or commercial, this is my first post on boards so hope it went alright, avid simmental fan, p dogg

We used vio a bit after Newry went and tbh he wasn't as good in my view.
On comm cows, good cows at that.
We would never have used either on heifers. Not saying they were hard calved, but the Simm can bring a good bit of bone and be raw enough.

Would ya consider an easy Lim or BA for the first calf and Simm after that?
You'd still end up with a useful calf all goin well.

p dogg

Thanks for the comments folks, i'd definately prefer to use a pedigree bull (sim) first time round, just restrict feeding for last month or so aiming for a stessful free calving, trying to decide what bull to use, any suggestions or comments will be taken on board

p dogg

I see that there is a
simmental sale at Tullamore this coming Saturday, from some of the top herds in the country, I see that one of the top ai bulls curaheen vio is for sale at it as well, at 7 years old how much do ye lads reckon he'll make!!!!

Mad4simmental

p dogg wrote: »

I see that there is a
simmental sale at Tullamore this coming Saturday, from some of the top herds in the country, I see that one of the top ai bulls curaheen vio is for sale at it as well, at 7 years old how much do ye lads reckon he'll make!!!!

Depends on the trade, I think it's two herd clear outs both converting to dairy. Might be more demand in spring but good stock will make good cash.

p dogg

I've been looking through the latest icbf proofs and cant help but notice daughter milk has decreased significantly with most of the top Simmental bulls in the country, is the Simmental breed going the same direction as other continental breeds like Limousin and charolais, losing one of the Simmental breeds best attributes "ability to rear a calf with super weight for age" could be on the cards over the next few years, twud be an awful shame, perhaps madforsimmental would be knowledgable on the situation!!!!!!

towzer2010

p dogg wrote: »

I've been looking through the latest icbf proofs and cant help but notice daughter milk has decreased significantly with most of the top Simmental bulls in the country, is the Simmental breed going the same direction as other continental breeds like Limousin and charolais, losing one of the Simmental breeds best attributes "ability to rear a calf with super weight for age" could be on the cards over the next few years, twud be an awful shame, perhaps madforsimmental would be knowledgable on the situation!!!!!!

It's not just sim. All the maternal bulls I used this autumn have dropped milk ratings. The worst are ZGH the parthenaise bull who dropped from 14 kgs to -.25 kgs for daughter milk and ZLL the AA bull dropped from 16 kgs to 8 kgs.

I know the reliability was low but they are some drops.

Mad4simmental

As above it's across all breeds. Ch in France would stun you how much milk they have. If your replaisments are cumming true with low milk then pick a bull bulling with milk and Notting elce. You can't have your cake and eat it.

Most of our girls were bought off farm & I got to walk around the cows first and picked heifers from cows that were bulling milk. I payed for that privilege but I think it's worth it in the long run.

Allot of AI bulls IMO are there for good looks, it's easy to screw numbers and the system for kg per day and size for stars but harder to do it for milk.

onyerbikepat

Here you go, proven simmental bulls for milk ( > 90% rel) from the latest ICBF data (Dec 2013).

p dogg

No shortage of milky simmentals there alright, but the youngest bull on that list is 9 years old, it just seems that year on year the simmentals are improving in conformation and terminal traits while losing milk just like limousins and charolais breeds have done already, sad but true!