Simi Dispositions ?

[Stocker Steve]

We have been using Limi, Angus, or Limi Flex bulls for a while. Recently bought a some Simis that are out of various Genex bulls. They have a bigger flight zone than our previous bulls and take a month to settle in. Have you seen this tendency with Simis?

 

[dun]

Not with our crossbreds, they're almost too calm and sometimes hard to move unless we're in front waiving a white stick to catch their attention

 

[bball]

Not with our crossbreds, they're almost too calm and sometimes hard to move unless we're in front waiving a white stick to catch their attention

I have to second this. Our simi xbreds are hard to work because they are so tame.

 

[kjonesel]

In the early 70's we crossed the Simmental that ABS had with some of our milk cows and all of the offspring were tame. Now some of our local cattlemen have "Simmental" and they are as well as Angus, matter of fact they appear to be nothing more than overgrown Angus. As far as I'm concerned the black Gelbvieh are the same way.

 

[Aaron]

Simmentals always have had very good dispositions. Night and day between them and Limo's/Angus.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Same here, hard to load at times cause they just wanna stand there. I do have some batsh*t crazy gelbviehs though to stir the rest up. I can't wait until those miserable things are gone. Worst cattle mistake ever made on this farm was introducing those.

 

[dun]

I do know that some of the old timers were a serious problem. Signal and his offspring, Abricot and his off spring. But we have a number of cows that go back a couple of generations to both of them and they're TOO tame. Hard headed, but tame

 

[Stocker Steve]

Must be a local problem.
The two local Limi breeders are very sensitive to disposition, and their bulls are tamer than angus.
The local Simi breeder sells some show cattle. Apparently disposition is not his top priority.

 

[dun]

Must be a local problem.
The two local Limi breeders are very sensitive to disposition, and their bulls are tamer than angus.
The local Simi breeder sells some show cattle. Apparently disposition is not his top priority.

Could be a breeder problem rather then a breed problem. I know I guy that has Horned Herefords that are batty and almost dangerous to be around.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Could be a breeder problem rather thenf a breed problem. I know I guy that has Horned Herefords that are batty and almost dangerous to be around.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[ram]

I believe a bad disposition is the breeders fault in this day and age. There's just to much information available and everyone has had plenty of time to cull the high strung animals.

 

[KNERSIE]

I believe a bad disposition is the breeders fault in this day and age. There's just to much information available and everyone has had plenty of time to cull the high strung animals.

While I agree individual breeders should take a lot of blame there are still differences between breeds. I work enough cattle in enough herds of enough breeds to say this from experience.

In my own situation my poll herefords are very tame, my horned herefords not so much, in fact my red angus was a lot tamer than the horned herefords, but my angus were wild with very quick and accurate feet.

Back to Simmental, the fullbloods do have lines that could do with an easier going disposition, some when crossed is worse than Brahman. The vast majority are very level tempered. I have no experience of the "diluted" black simmentals on your side of the pond.

 

[Nite Hawk]

When Simmental's first appeared in our area many years ago, everyone was totally impressed with their growing ability, but the problem with the first seed-stock was they were totally batty, and wilder than a deer.
From what I have been told ( don't know if it true or grapevine) there were three different types of sentimental imported into Canada. I was told that one of the types was a dairy type sentimental, that was used for milking in Europe. i have seen semmi cattle that were more bony- like a dairy cow, so maybe it is true, and maybe that is why there are differences in temperament in different areas.
I am sure nowdays that some breeders are very careful about breeding decent tempered animals,
but in my observation is that the "modern" sentimental is MUCH different than the old style sentimental.
they even look different as alot of red angus blood has been introduced, and the style of animal has dramatically changed.
You can often tell by look whether it is the modern Semmi or the old style, bloodlines they look that different.

 

[Bigfoot]

I guess several breeds have kinda reincarnated them selves as something they didn't used to be. Simmental being at the top of the list. I liked the old, and I like the new. The new don't seem to have temperament problems. BTW the only steers that I ever remember raising that actually graded on the rail as prime were the old school Simmentals.

 

[Muddy]

When my late grandpa had some flecks, most of them are very quiet other than the yellow one that was just ornery. That yellow cow produce biggest steers (F1 Fleck x Angus) but they were a bunch of azzholes. I really like the disposition of the local black Simmentals here.

 

[TCRanch]

You don't get much more docile than our 2100 lb Sim/Angus who lets me milk her out or doctor her in the middle of the pasture. We can tag/band her calves & she just watches. When we need to load her we simply open the trailer door with a couple cubes as incentive. We're primarily Angus but she makes me want to consider a Simmental bull.

 

[cow pollinater]

The modern(watered down) ones that I've been around aren't bad at all but I worked on a place that had a bunch of fleck mixed into the cows and they were half nuts and I've seen lots of cows so it takes some doing to get me to call one nuts. They ran 500 cows in a rotation cross with red angus and hereford so it was easy to spot where the crazy came in.

 

[bigbull338]

aimis have been a little hard to deal with ever since ive known of the breed back in the early 70si know because i had a good friend that was a reg simi breeder till he died.back in late 70s he bought a brimmer bull to get simbrahs.i told him the calves would be worse than what he delt with.talked to him at weaning time and said they was very highstrung.

 

[Lucky_P]

Steve,
I've had Simmental influence in my herd since 1983... and have recently gone back to using some Simmental sires. Have not specifically used any of the Genex sires, but bloodlines similar to some in their lineup, I'm sure. We always look for - regardless of breed - bulls with high docility scores (if that breed has that , or the particular sire is noted for good/bad disposition in his offspring) when we're making sire selections - I'm getting too old and slow to deal with crazies.
Simmental-sired calves/cows here are certainly no wilder/flightier than those sired by most of the Angus and Shorthorn sires we've used over the past 10 years - and less so than some by some of the Angus sires.

We cull heavily on disposition; have eliminated most of the wild/aggressive/high-headed cattle over the last decade, but still have a few of our old linebred Fleckvieh-influenced cows that are now into their teens. One of them, we have to handle carefully, when we're working 'em- she's not mean, but gets really nervous when they're in close quarters - she's fine, out in the pasture; the others... no worries.

 

[dun]

An old friend of mine, long dead now, was with the group that toured through Europe and selected the bulls/semen to be imported. He said that at the time they were selecting them the only concern was growth and structure. That explains why so many of the older imports had serious calving issues and disposition problems.