The focus of the Simmental Society exhibit at this year’s National Ploughing Championships is delivering greater profit to suckler farmers. All animals on suckler farms must have the potential to reach set targets at younger ages and, by doing so, reduce input costs and increase profit margins.

The pedigree section will feature a selection of the cows with calves at foot from the recent National Livestock Show at Tullamore. These cows will highlight to farmers the key attributes of the breed in having calves with superior weight gain.

Meanwhile, in the ring, the traditional bull class will feature a selection of yearling bulls that have qualified through club finals and at the Tullamore Show.

These bulls will reflect the quality of animals that will be offered for sale at the premier in November. This class, which is sponsored by Agricare Nutrition, will be judged on the Tuesday at 2pm.

In the commercial section, the focus will be on replacement heifers and under 16-month bull beef production. Young heifers on display will demonstrate the ability of Simmental heifers to reach target weight for serving to allow calving at 24 months, therefore delivering additional profit.

Getting under 16-month bulls to a carcase weight of 400+ kg with a fat cover of 3 and 4 is achievable. The Simmental stand will display a selection of 12-month-old Simmental x bulls that will have the ability to achieve these targets, thereby highlighting the ability of the breed to deliver under this system.

Finally, the society will be promoting its autumn sale schedule. The highlight will be the premier pedigree show and sale in Roscommon on Saturday 7 November. It is anticipated that there will be 50 bulls and 70 females for sale, offering a variety of choice for customers.

The commercial Simmental cross breeding heifer sales start at Ballymote on Saturday 3 October, with Tullamore on Monday 5 October and Gort on Thursday 15 October.

In total, there will be about 500 heifers offered at these three sales, giving suckler farmers a great opportunity to acquire good foundation females for their suckler herds.

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All about Ploughing 2015