ON THE RISE
Simmental bull average prices increase 40% in just two years
NOT many cattle breed enthusiasts out there could say their bulls increased in value by 40% on average in the past few years, but Marty Rowlands can.
For 20 years Mr Rowlands and partner Stephen Lean have championed the simmental breed after starting their own stud in Murphys Creek, KBV Simmental.
This year felt like the culmination of huge amounts of work and passion as he looked over the offerings at the Simmental Feature Show, held at the Toogoolawah Show recently.
Mr Rowlands said there were nine breeders with cattle on show at the event and for the first time there was a fairly even offering of all three simmental colours.
He said it was a good sign for breeders looking for simmental traits they could cross with matching colours in their own stud, offering conformity as well as having the best of both worlds in terms of breed traits.
It all pointed to a new era for the simmental breed, which he said was continuing a stratospheric rise in both popularity and price.
“We’ve made ourselves a
very accessible breed and people continue to come back and buy simmentals every year,” he said.
“We’ve never had a luck of numbers to be able to supply to our demand, but one thing we’ve noticed is that prices have increased, and increased dramatically over the last two years.
“We’ve had a 40% increase on average for our bulls, whereas we haven’t seen those increase averages across other breeds.”
Mr Rowlands said the feature show was a grand success and the quality was attested to by the fact that the simmentals also cleaned up in the open categories at Toogoolawah Show.
Simmentals picked up both Interbreed Champion Female and Bull categories.
“We chose Toogoolawah for the feature show because you can get a good showing of simmentals in that location,” he said.
“We had nine exhibitors and they came from as far as Meandarra, Cecil Plains, Kingaroy and surrounding areas.
“There were some very good cattle on display and a good, diverse range allowing us to exhibit traditional, black and red simmentals.
“It’s fairly well standard to get all three, but we’re starting to see a lot more black, which is good for
diversity and being able to meet the demands of consumers.”
He said there were plenty of reasons to love the simmental breed, but the most common traits people were after were calving ease, performance and maternal traits.
“We’re still as enthusiastic as ever and getting more inquiries than we’ve ever had,” Mr Rowlands said.
Winners of the Supreme Simmental Exhibit category, Glen Waldron and Kim Groner of Elite Cattle Co, said they added black simmentals to their charolais stud after seeing the potential.
“After a trip to Canada and falling in love with the black simmentals, we realised that they had a lot to offer the Australian industry and began
importing genetics to form the base of our stud,” Ms Groner said.
She said the Supreme Exhibit winner, Elite Black Opal, was 17 months old and a foundation female for their herd.
The stud also picked up Junior Champion Female and Grand Champion Male in the junior category, with the supreme win topping off an incredible show.
She said this year their first batch of black simmental bulls would go up for private sale and they welcomed any inquiries.
Mr Rowlands echoed the invitation to check out what was on offer within the breed by checking out the range of annual sales on the simmental.com.au website.