The New Year is off to a good start for three Simmental herds located in counties Antrim and Tyrone, Northern Ireland, with the export of two cows and calves, five heifers, and a young bull to breeders in Switzerland and Germany.

The deal featuring the Slievenagh, Omorga and Hiltonstown herds, follows on from an initial export in July 2020 involving 11 Northern Ireland-bred Simmental cattle. This latest deal was struck with three repeat customers and a new buyer, and bolsters an upsurge in international demand for genetics, embryos and semen from high health status herds in Northern Ireland.

Robin Boyd from the Portglenone-based 30-cow Slievenagh herd is the British Simmental Cattle Society’s World Simmental and Fleckvieh Federation representative and was one of three breeders who shipped pedigree cattle to the continent, last week.

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“The breed was first imported to Northern Ireland in 1971, and last year, as the NI Simmental Cattle Breeders’ Club celebrated its 50th anniversary, we brokered a deal to export 10 Simmental cattle to the breed’s native homeland,” explained Mr Boyd.

“It is very pleasing to see most of the cattle are going to satisfied customers Felix Tobler, Christian Bunde and Mario Walther, and new buyer Markus Rahn."

The initial export almost 18-months ago was initiated by Flex Tobler, and his son Joel, from Chapelle in Switzerland, who visited the UK and NI to participate in breed stockjudging competitions which fuelled local interest in the cattle.

The Tobler family were the first herd owners to import cattle, of any breed, from Northern Ireland to Switzerland.

Slievenagh Lottie was exported to the Bunde family’s herd in Germany.

Slievenagh Lottie was exported to the Bunde family’s herd in Germany.

In this new deal, Felix and Joel Tobler took delivery of five animals carrying the Boyd family’s Slievenagh prefix. The consignment included the three-year-old cow Slievenagh Klassy Lady and her polled eight-month-old Coose Jericho bull calf; Slievenagh Krystal and her eight-week-old heifer calf Slievenagh Monica and the yearling heifer Slievenagh Molly.

The Bunde family from Drewitz in Germany, purchased the 2020-born heifers Slievenagh Lottie and Slievenagh Lily (P).

Mario Walther from Frankfurt bought two from the Moore family’s 40-cow Omorga herd both of which were just nine months of age – Omorga Midnight (P) and the bull Omorga Moses (P).

The Moore family’s polled heifer Omorga Midnight also sold to Mario Walther from Frankfurt.

The Moore family’s polled heifer Omorga Midnight also sold to Mario Walther from Frankfurt.

Richard and Rhys Rodgers from Portglenone, sold the 10-month-old heifer, Hiltonstown Lindsay, to German customer Markus Rahan.

The export was facilitated by livestock haulier Martin O’Neill, with the journey from Northern Ireland via Rosslare and Cherbourg, taking almost three days.

This latest deal continues what has been a significant export demand for British Simmental live cattle and genetics over the last two years with further sales to Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, USA, and China.