Simmental Breeding Questions!!

  I was wanting to breed this Purebred Simmental cow this coming April to try and get showy offspring. I have narrowed down the bulls that I was wondering about breeding her to, but I wanted to get some opinions from some of y’all who have seen calves out of these bulls and know what the end product would look like. I currently have: Hard Core, Cut Above (Fat Butt), Trademark, Rendition, Domination, Shear Force, In Dew Time, Upgrade, Dream On, Ranch Hand, Sweet Meat, Fortunate Son, Grandmaster, Dominique, Built Right, and Voyager. I can also easily get ahold of several ABS bulls including Movin’ Forward and Olie if need be.  I am looking for calves that could be shown, if that is possible with the quality here. Any other suggestions are welcome, as I will be placing an order around Christmas that will most likely have Mo Better, Macho and possibly Steel Force in it that could have more.
(You know you’re a cattle person if you ask for bull semen for Christmas!  (lol) ).


I know that she is by no means a barn burner, but she is a decent cow that was bred to produce bulls. I got ahold of her and showed her for two years and she had a very successful record including numerous Reserve Championships (as a yearling) and Grand Championships as a senior yearling. In the ring, she was faulted for her color and front 1/3. She is sound, wide and functional enough for me, but could have used a tad more depth as a heifer. I also feel that she needs a cleaner front more than anything. She was flashy in her younger days, and doesn’t need as much pretty pretty. A black calf wouldn’t hurt either. These are just quick thoughts that I could come up with, but if you see anything else that she needs, feel free to let me know. I was thinking that Cut Above or Rendition would work fairly well. I will post pictures of her calves if I can find any.

Heifer Picture (gradually decreasing feed after the fair)


A Month before first calf was born (on pasture):


About a Month after Second Calf (Taken today, on pasture.):


Sorry the pictures aren't too great! If you need more, I can try to find some!

Breeding: Dream On Son X Outcross
DOB: 9/10/2008
EPD's: CE  Brth  Wean  Year  MCE  Milk  MWW  Stay  CW      YG    Marb  BF  REA  API    TI
EPD    8.4  -0.1  29.0  48.1  4.8    2.6  17.1    23.3  -9.2 -0.10    0.14  0.01 0.28  116.5 61.1

I would GREALTY appreciate feedback on any of these matings, as I tend to second guess myself.  Any other purebred or 3/4 options are open as long as they are in my financial grasp, so feel free to suggest! I have been working on these for a few months and I hope that I can get things sorted out for April! Thanks again SP Buds!

Here are her calves:

(sorry about the bad picture. It's the only one I have)
She is about 14 months old.
This one was an accident that happened when she jumped the fence and got in with the bull and snuck back over. We didn't know she was bred until it was too late. The bull was just an outcross cleanup.



This one is her approximately month old heifer calf that is out of our herd bull. I know its too young to tell, but it could help

In the last picture- she rivals the mini lowline cross for frame score

You've got quite a list of potential prospects lined up.

Without seeing a rear view of her, but she looks plenty thick... I think I would have to narrow it down to lining her up around DO, or Rendition-- but in both cases- you'd have a chance for red... but then again, I know almost zero about every other simi bull out there. 

hey you could follow the club calf trend, and just gear for crazy color and care less about anything else... in that case, buy some Lucky Dice.. Topsires has it on the clearance rack...

Very neat cow... I think you're not a barnburner quote, is somewhat lacking in fortitude

Look into CHOPPER. he can give you the showy look and she looks like she would be stout enough for him

I like your little cow.  How much birth weight are willing to tolerate? I like her front end just fine.  I would be looking to improve her EPDs while maintaining her showability.  Have you considered any TNT influence bulls?

I could see In Dew Time, Built Right, or maybe Trademark working. I'd watch out breeding her to a bull that carries the spotting gene, she looks like she could carry it herself.

Cut the BS said:

In the last picture- she rivals the mini lowline cross for frame score

You've got quite a list of potential prospects lined up.

Without seeing a rear view of her, but she looks plenty thick... I think I would have to narrow it down to lining her up around DO, or Rendition-- but in both cases- you'd have a chance for red... but then again, I know almost zero about every other simi bull out there. 

hey you could follow the club calf trend, and just gear for crazy color and care less about anything else... in that case, buy some Lucky Dice.. Topsires has it on the clearance rack...

Very neat cow... I think you're not a barnburner quote, is somewhat lacking in fortitude

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Haha in the last picture (if it's the one i think you're talking about! ) she is on a slight bank and I am on a little rise across from her. The cattle that look small in the background look a little funny too.. I see what you mean! Hahaha, bad angle I guess!

And those are just the bulls that I have in my tank for all of my cattle. I didn't know if putting up a list would jog one's memory! (lol)

I was thinking heavily about Rendition, but I hadn't considered Dream On. The last two bulls that she was bred to were Heterozygous and her calves ended up black! Haha! I had actually thought about Lucky Man to help out with EPD's, but I was concerned about extra leather on the front of the calf. I bet the color pattern would be interesting since a lot of her breeding goes back to some older stuff.

I had really considered a clubby bull, but I am trying to build my Purebred herd. I had experimented with some clubby stuff a few years back, and 1 of the 5 or so calves I got was functional and able to be kept. Might just be bad luck I guess..

Thanks for the feedback!  ;D ;D

woltemathangus said:

Look into CHOPPER. he can give you the showy look and she looks like she would be stout enough for him

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I had wondered about Chopper, I wasn't sure about him adding depth though. Thanks for your feedback!  ;D

Mark H said:

I like your little cow.  How much birth weight are willing to tolerate? I like her front end just fine.  I would be looking to improve her EPDs while maintaining her showability.  Have you considered any TNT influence bulls?

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Her calves have came pretty small even out of high BW bulls, but I wouldn't want anything too extreme. We have pulled some 120lb calves...don't wanna do that again! Which TNT bulls would you suggest?

LN said:

I could see In Dew Time, Built Right, or maybe Trademark working. I'd watch out breeding her to a bull that carries the spotting gene, she looks like she could carry it herself.

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I had also thought about In Dew Time or Built Right, but I didn't know about the Dream On influence. I doubt it would matter too much since she is just a Granddaughter! As for the spots, the pictures were taken when she was not brushed, and that could have caused the dark patches. It wouldn't surprise me if she carries the gene though! She has been bred heterozygous before with both of the calves ending up being black.

I like built right on her.  We love our Built Right calves and i think it would be a cool match up

SVF/NJC Amazon should give you a pretty sharp looking calf from her. Might not help with the EPD's but there is no DREAM ON there and Amazon is Homozygous Black with the white on the face. I saw him sale at Sunset View and have seen some sale sired by him and they did very well. Upgrade and Trademark are nice too.

It seems to me that that have your heart set on using a black bull.  My main concern is making sure the females and bull calves are the type you can sell to purebred  breeders and commercial bull customers.  I want to win shows but functionality is necessary.
Genex has a couple of bulls that are nice spread bulls TNT TANKER U236 and MR NLC UPGRADE U8676.Let me know what you think.
I would like to use a Fleck Bull on her to power her up; but for you birth weight and front end issues would make them not a wise choice for you.  Check out this bull for example:http://www.semex.com/di/beef/i?lang=en&beef=view&breed=SI&av=&view=142

I really like your cow,  I'd take cows like her anytime.  My vote would be  for breeding her to Steel Force.  I see Griswolds will be selling 500 straws on Sat.  and it says no more will be sold until next years sale and the Frozen Gold sale.  The Steel Force heifers in their sale catalog are really really nice.  I'd give him a try.
Chopper would be my next choice.

I think steel force would work really well on her. Or maybe Upgrade or Chopper.

I was wondering if the Rendition in question was the baldy version?  If so, while his calves did very well this past summer, the amount of white your cow has, combined with his ability to bald them up, might result in more chrome than you desire.  Make sure you check the pedigree for white in the line for around three to four generations before her.  If is is present, the chance for quite a bit of white goes up exponentially.  Just something to think about.  On a related note, I like your cow!  From the views in the pictures, she is doing her job.  We have a Fat Butt heifer that we are pretty happy with right now, but we are not tagging her as the future of the industry!  LOL  He will pull them apart as far as width is concerned and for a two month old, has quite a bit of muscular expression and a pretty clean front.  She is out of a 1/2 blood simangus cow that has Dream On influence.  Mr. Morris said that is about the ideal mating for him and with the amount of DO females out there......  things are looking up for Fat Butt.  I completely understand trying to breed for a show animal, but I would say breed for what you like and for what works in your program.  While getting the handshake is really nice, around our place, if they dont work around the house, they dont have a place for us. 

IDK about the rest of you but i did see that she was a dream on cow and you want to breed her back to dream on prodgeny?????? personally i have seen some pretty good calves out of TNT ever ready that are good fronted with plenty of depth and he has an api of 137 i believe even though your cows numbers are not bad

spencer f. said:

IDK about the rest of you but i did see that she was a dream on cow and you want to breed her back to dream on progeny??????

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ya that's right... and I fixed your typo

Now thats a pretty good looking red baldy you have there , id be happy with her if she were mine ! On her in particular i would probably go with a solid color bull because of her being a full baldy , as stated above i think you could get one painted up real quick out of her. I might be thinking outside the box but TNT Top Gun would certainly power her up and add a lot to her growth numbers too , be pretty cool calf i think ! Im guessing thats not the route you want to go with her but i just had to mention it lol. Talking black bulls and i might suggest Entourage possibly. Chopper , Steel Force , Built Right , Rendition and such would be cool but your likely to get an overdose of white with her being colored like she is. I push the envelope all the time breeding baldys to baldys , sometimes it works right and sometimes you get some wild color , the great part of it is that its all your choice ! Good luck

I think you should use American Pride on your cow. I saw him personally last week in his working clothes and he is as complete of a Simmi bull as I have seen. He is as good necked as you can make one and is super deep and soggy and big footed and he is going to stay sound forever. I think a Steel Force son should work also, maybe Optimus Prime or Montecito (full brothers). In my opinion you are right about the Chopper's possibly not being as deep. Good luck with whatever you choose!

What about Climax??  Meyer on Meyer...