Darby has had Black Angus bull calves on offer since 1999 but 2008 marks the first year we will have purebred Simmental Bull Calves for Sale. All our bulls will be available in the “Your Choice” Bull Sale April 18th, 2008. Please come join us at the Sale and feel free to stop by for a visit anytime.
None of our cattle are creep fed and our sale is later in the spring so our bulls don't have to be pushed. Taking our time to get our bulls into proper sale shape ensures that there will be no feed related problems with feet and overall soundness. Haven’t we all watched an expensive, over fat bull waste down to nothing at some time or another? Natural thickness and muscling is our goal. Please feel free to take a gander at our 2008 Bull Sale Offering.
There are a lot of good Angus and Hereford cattle in the southwest corner of Saskatchewan and we saw a unique opportunity to offer one of the best crosses for both those breeds – Simmental. Crossing with Simmental will not only adds pounds to your calves with their extra muscle and length of spine, but the females provide that extra milk which will also pack on the pounds. A good friend of ours said it best- who doesn’t want 50 plus extra pounds per calf for free? That’s what a Simmental cross can do for you.
Selecting the Right Kind
When we selected the Simmental cattle that were to come down to Robsart, SK. with us, we wanted cows that were moderate in size, with lots of muscle expression, excellent feet and legs, as well as sound udders. A tall
Treating Them All The Same
The Simmental cows are run together with our purebred and commercial herds as well as with South Shadow Angus’s purebred and commercial herd. The purebred cows at the Ranch are treated and fed the same and run with the commercial herd most of the time except for their barn time at calving and the month when we are Artificially Inseminating.
order, but cows like that aren’t too hard to find at Kimlake Farms. A couple of the cows that have made the trek down South come from some of the original Fleckvieh cows Sarah purchased which were crossed with red bulls when she wisely assumed at some point she may be making a move to Southern Saskatchewan! Four cows are from the family favorite Noremac cow 73F (affectionately called Storm); the first purebred Simmental born on Kimlake and one of the best and most productive cow families there.
Pictured Left is Thunderstruck 15T, one of our Purebred Simmental bulls for sale this year out of Noremac 248M (from the Storm Family). Look for him at the Your Choice Bull Sale April 18th, 2008.
Pictured Right is one of our Purebred Simmental cows on winter-feed with the Angus herds.
Red and Black Simmentals
The Program
Breeding
We begin calving our Simmentals at the beginning of January. Approximately 50% of our herd is the result of AI matings and another 25% are sired by WFL Black Buddy 931K; this was no accident. Some of the best and most productive cows we have seen come from the high selling “Buddy” bull purchased from Westway’s.
Pictured Left is WFL Black Buddy 931K; a Festus son that has proven
himself a supreme female maker.
AI is a very important tool for us, however we also believe in the power of a really good walking bull, so last year we purchased the high selling bull at Ashworth’s and Tessier’s Sale TESS Black Dream 600S (known as Silk Tassel around the Farm). Silk Tassel should also make excellent females.
Pictured at Right is TESS Black Dream 600S, our walking
herdsire and the high selling bull at the 2007 Ashworth and Guests Bull Sale
