The "A" List

It kinda snuck up on us but the other day Rob and I realized that we have been breeding Simmental cattle  together for 30 years.  I grew up on a Simmental farm, my parents and Aunt and Uncle operated Highwood Land & Cattle.  They began crossing their Hereford commercial cows to Simmental in the late 60's.  As things would go it was taking way to long to advance the herd to purebred status.  They were presented with the opportunity to buy 100 purebred cows from one of the founding herds in North America, SBL at Cardston, AB. The home of Parisian the first Simmental bull imported to Canada.

 Many of those cows carried the tattoo year letter "A" and were born in 1969.

Fast forward 22 years and Rob and I are now developing our own herd of Simmentals.  The first Simmental that was given to our daughter Stacy, was a red & white heifer named RJY Miss Stacy 16A.  She produced our first black Simmental and the first heifer that Stacy showed at her first junior Simmental show - RJY Black Lace 1C.



 

RJY Black Lace 1C - first daughter of 16A

RJY Cajun - was at the side of 16A
when named Champion Female at Drayton Valley Show

 The 16A cow family planted a seed, one that would take a young girl that loved her Stacy Cow and is now developing her own herd of Simmentals. 

RJY Black Lace 1C - the first black Simmental
to show at a Junior Show in Alberta

Fast forward to 2013 and we are now on our 3rd cycle of  "A" calves.  When we began looking at the calving list, we realized that if things went according to plan, Stacy could have 16A again..... and she did.  This time SLY 16A is a red blaze faced heifer calf.

SLY 16A - Born January 14, 2013

I`m not sure if Rob and I will be calving cows 22 years from now, but maybe we can go and visit Stacy and Dan and see the 4th go round on the A list.