Kern Simmentals history

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REDUCTION SALE RESULTS:
November 19th, 2006

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CANADIAN POLLED FULLBLOOD SIMMENTAL GENETICS
FROM A FLECKVIEH BASE

KERN SIMMENTALS came into being with our first registered animal, a half-blood, DEK 251C, a Parisien daughter, born in 1971. From then we went onto the 3/4's, the 7/8's, etc, then the fullbloods imported from Switzerland and Austria in the early 70's and the embryos (done surgically then) from these imports, until 1979 when the decision was made to develop polled fullbloods. We saw the advantages that Simmentals gave the commercial cattle industry and we have never lost sight of those advantages in developing our bloodlines since then.

Our embryo transplant program enabled us to prove the quality of one of our imports in particular, Manta, a full Fleckvieh. Her bloodline became our foundation bloodline. At this point in the history of Simmental in Canada (1970's & 80's), the popularity of the Fleckvieh genetics was not present. However, at Kern Simmentals, we were aware of the advantage of incorporating our Fleckvieh bloodlines within the existing industry. We used the performance bulls available to us at that time to develop a Fullblood Canadian Simmental/Fleckvieh.

It was Manta's polled daugther, Manta's Advantage, from whom we then developed our POLLED CANADIAN FULLBLOOD bloodlines. We took advantage of the various government regulated bull testing stations and standards to prove the power of our bulls. Bulls such as Kern's Precision, DEK Polled Quasar,
MAN Polled Anchor Boy, DEK Polled Olympus out-performed all other bulls on test, including all other fullbloods, percentages and all other beef breeds.

It wasn't long before Kern Simmentals became synonymous with the concept of "ease of feeding". That is why we adopted the motto, "MAXIMUM POUNDS WITH MINIMUM MAINTENANCE", in our advertisements. DEK bulls became genetic trait leaders, proving themselves within our own herd as well as in many other herds. Calving ease coupled with performance was a major selection tool in our quest to develop superior polled genetics. Our females and their offsprings also had to meet our standards for calving, style and performance.

We used the show circuit to advertise our bloodline and obtained many Champion and Grand Champion ribbons in the process. It was the natural thickness and structural soundness that we were presenting - the middle of the road size that could be bred up or down depending on the market or trend. One of our crowning achievements occured in 1995, when our group of 3 bulls won the 1st time Breeder's Choice award presented at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. We successfully offered our fullblood genetics to the industry at various production sales, both male and female, over the years, through good market times and bad market times. Semen and embryos have been exported to South America and Europe.

Unfortunately in 1996, a major back injury made it very difficult for Erich to work. By the end of the 1990's, with our operation having reached multiple levels of success and with our daughters, who were instrumental in working with us to obtain our goals, now permanently living and working overseas, it was time to analyse our situation. We felt that we had achieved our destination - to develop superior polled fullblood genetics that exceed industry expectations for consistent performance and efficiency. In June 1999, we offered our exceptional and long established genetics to the industry and had a very successful sale.

Shortly following our sale, we acquired a small group of females that had come from our original herd. With these, plus a few new purchases, we had a new destination towards which to work - using our philosophies to develop CANADIAN POLLED FULLBLOOD SIMMENTAL/FLECKVIEH GENETICS. From that nucleus, we have continued to improve our herd in quality and quantity, and today we have 50 plus breeding females. The challenge of developing a new herd has resulted in a satisfying achievement for us.

Manta Bloodline
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Crossroads Benchmark
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BHR Three Sixes

Our current breeding program focuses on the changing beef market conditions using some of the new genetics available to us, while building upon our original POLLED and FLECKVIEH base. We feel that the combination of genetics that we now have to offer suits today's evolving beef cattle landscape. Each cattleman has his or her own unique set of herd requirements, depending on environment, herd size, local markets and available resources. Versatile needs call for versatile genetics, and now Kern Simmentals offers a well-rounded genetic package that can meet these needs.

Please click on the link to Kern Simmentals' Commitment to Quality Genetics to learn more about our breeding principles...

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News: REDUCTION SALE RESULTS: November 19th, 2006

News:

REDUCTION SALE RESULTS:
November 19th, 2006