The resurrection of the 1980's simmentals

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leanbeef

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Our Papillion was out of Volks 509T donor...I think that was her number. We bought a bull one year that bred a few cows then died under a hay wagon on Christmas Eve...went back that next March and got another one out of the same cow. We had good luck with that bull.

Galant was a good bull. We had one daughter that was born in 1974 and produced until she was 16. Her last calf fell in a pond and drowned...not her fault, but she was without a baby that year & she was forced into retirement. Way ahead of her time...moderate framed, solid red blaze faced cow...I think she may be the only cow from our old red purebred program that we still have genetics from since we started breeding all blacks.

I'd be surprised if you found any of that semen, but you never know. It'd be in ampules...prob in a tank with some Abricot, Signal, Bismark, Bar 11 Ueli, Parisien, Florien, Renz and Bavarian!
 

vcsf

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Leanbeef, I still have a little bit of that Galant in my tank but I am sure it is in straws.  It is there right with the Abricot, Canadian Salvator, Extra, Achilles, Prairie Boy, and Superstar among some others.  The scary thing is that I acquired all of these after they had become somewhat scarce but still had popularity and some cost quite a bit of money as in excess of $100 a dose.  I never bought any Signal semen as by that time what was alleged to have been smuggled into Canada was priced at $150 or more a dose and what was here legally was $300 plus.  I do not have any Papillon as i used all of it with very little success but am equally lucky to have his sire Salute of Sim Pol along with some others that were the height of popularity in the mid eighties.

I was always a big fan of Galant bred cows as I felt that while they might not be the extreme top producers they had a lot of really strong maternal traits and were fairly easy doing for the time.  Pretty well all of what I considered my top cows for a long time had a shot of Galant in them not to far back.

Here are pictures of Generation III and his sire Single Nick Doubletime.
 

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Lucky_P

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Yikes!  Didn't remember GenIII being that 'leggy' - but it has been over 20 years since I bred to him. 
Still, the daughters out of Angus cows were good enough that I wouldn't necessarily back away from him if someone GAVE me the semen. 

Had considered, within the last few years, trying some Autobahn, who was, if I recall correctly, a son of DS Pollfleck 809 that Select Sires was carrying(and may still have available off the main sires list) - but opted to go for 'black', with more marbling and tenderness and comparable growth and ribeye.
 

woltemathangus

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Dad says the signal daughters were very good for there time.... When you could get them to breed. And the flecks should have all been recips. Haha
 

leanbeef

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I was 4 when Dad started AIing our commercial cows in '71, so I didn't get to help out with any matings back then. I still don't know why he never used Galant and Signal and Abricot and some of this bulls. I remember him using Florian quite a bit early on and a few years later Renz, Ulk, Bar 5 Stretch, Bismark and some others. He bought a fullblood bull in 1977 and got away from AI for a few years...it may have been a blessing! I started showing in the early '80s & I woulda been begging him to use some of the bulls that were winning then. I'm sure we woulda butted heads over that! He bought some pretty good bulls, and we stayed more true to his commercial roots. I learned my lesson the hard way when I got to start making some decisions on my own...that's probably why I like cows a frame score smaller now than a lot of purebred breeders.

I think Doubletime was a Mr Clean son...we had one of those and a few Keep It Cleans that were all awful good cows.
 

sue

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Yes , no point in going back to the 80's. But keep posting pictures, I love the outfits!

Kingpin was shown in Detroit the year we helped a large simm breeder. I do not remember the group that owned him?
The  3 or 4 years I stood on pails or bails of hay to fit or wash.
 

leanbeef

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Lucky_P said:
Yikes!  Didn't remember GenIII being that 'leggy' - but it has been over 20 years since I bred to him. 
Still, the daughters out of Angus cows were good enough that I wouldn't necessarily back away from him if someone GAVE me the semen. 

Had considered, within the last few years, trying some Autobahn, who was, if I recall correctly, a son of DS Pollfleck 809 that Select Sires was carrying(and may still have available off the main sires list) - but opted to go for 'black', with more marbling and tenderness and comparable growth and ribeye.

It's funny how different things are when we have a new point of reference. I didn't remember thinking Generaton III was "extreme" at the time. And I'm not sure how he'd look standing next to Keystone and Papillion, but he was pretty leggy compared to anything I've used in the LAST 10 years! I never saw a bunch of those cattle, but I don't remember the Generations being extremely big at the time. I'm not sure Doubletime & Mr. Clean wouldn't make some decent females now, especially on Angus or crossbred cows.

The Pollflecks were really good cows, too. I don't remember him being a dilution gene carrier, but he might have been. I wasn't a huge fan of Autobahn...I always just thot he was ugly. Some "ugly" bulls make good cows, though, so I dunno...
 

Woody

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By no means do I think that every old bull will work. Papillon, Deffinatly not! What about 600U, I think he is an 86 model. Bold future that was mentioned earlier would have his place in today's crossbreeding. What about Highwayman, a doubletime son?  I would guess that most non diluters could work.
 

aandtcattle

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Hay Springs, Nebraska
600U?? YES!  All the aforementioned bulls?? NO!  I dont want to see the industry go down that road again.  Those females were a trainwreck in this part of the country.
 

Woody

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I forgot the best one!  What would Black Max half bloods do for improving size, yet keeping eye appeal?  When I started showing in the early 90s they were some dang good cattle, I could never afford them then. Does anybody have a picture of that bull?
 

aj

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I can't help think Galant would work....even today. I spose he was horned but I can't remember.
 

leanbeef

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I went back with Bold Future on Angus cows because he shows up in the pedigrees of so many good ones and was a real cow maker. I like what I have so far...three real nice black baldy females, and I plan to use him again this fall. He IS non diluter, but obviously red and heterozygous polled. So I'm making heterozygous black females with a 50% chance of being homozygous polled. Highwayman could make some good ones, but I don't think they'd be as consistently problem free as the Bold Futures. Some of those cattle had a LOTTA set to that hind leg!

As far as 600U, I think we're a few generations past him into the blacks, and if we're doing this thing right as breeders, we should have better bulls to choose from. Going back and picking up a bull like Bold Future is incorporating a bull that was ahead of his time in some ways & had a lot to offer, and using those genetics in the context of today's black Simmental cattle. An old bull like Galant could work, but I don't think he'd be a non diluter. And yes...he was horned...fullblood import. They were ALL horned back then.
 

Lucky_P

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leanbeef,
Looking back at photos of Pollfleck, I'm not certain he was a diluter either - but several of the other Simmental bulls I used back in the day - Alpine Polled Proto, DS Polltime, Gen III, etc. were.  
Had a bunch of Holstein heifers bred to Pollfleck, but sold 'em as springers, when we made a career change and move.  Pollfleck daughter that stayed were out of Alpine Polled Proto daughters - and all were diluted, probably from APP.  Good cows, though - one of 'em was 18, when I sold her, as a bred cow, 'cause she was way out of synch with the rest of the herd; still have some regrets about sending her on.
 

husker1

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Nebraska
One of my favorites for making females back in the day was Pineview Jazz.  We had some good ones, and nearly every one had that trademark big, bold spot on one cheek.

One of the top 5 females on the place, ever, was BCC Miss Signal 102P.  She was a little (for the time, anyway) 6 frame cow, very soft made and super easy fleshing, but still long bodied.  Perfect uddered, and milked like a 'stein.  She busted out a good calf every year.  Even though she had more white on her than red, I'd still take 20 just like her....A good Signal daughter.  Now the crazy thing...I remember purchasing her for $525 as a bred 2nd calver.

 

leanbeef

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Ol' Proto was another real good one, and he was definitely a dilution carrier. The worst thing about him was those cows could have a little attitude. They weren't mean, but I don't like cows that try to be smarter than I am! The few Proto daughters I ever knew were kinda like that.

Black Max was around a little early for us...that was before we were breeding many blacks. He could stamp em with a look, but if memory serves, his milk numbers were pretty bad... I don't remember that for certain, and I never owned one, but I think I remember that about him. I did use a litlle Black Maxmizer who was a baldy son of Black Max. Those were pretty nice calves.
 

HAB

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North Dakota
We used a polled Parsian son on our Galloway cows in the late 1980's.  They were some of the best black blazed faced females I have ever seen.  Deep bodied, easy fleshing, and well muscled.  Frame 6-7 most of them.
 

husker1

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Nebraska
My only memory about Black Max....

A former prominent Simmental breeder, who was a professional bull rider in his younger days, always said he wanted to find a pasture full of Black Max daughters and breed them Brahman to make some rodeo bulls...he said that the Black Max sired cows were the meanest around.

 
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