It’s always the
Rip 275J - Polled Fleckvieh (Granbury - French Attack)
to invest
Kommander 383K - Fleckvieh (French Attack - Barbossa)
Cartel 459K - Polled Fleckvieh (Creed - Intuition)
in an
Resistance 555K - Polled Fleckvieh (Reputation - Intuition)
ANCHOR D BULL Blue Mountain 231K - Polled Fleckvieh (Sheamus - Entourage)
February 10, 2023
Anchor D Ranch, Rimbey, AB
Superman 443K - Homo Polled Purebred (Tycoon - Force)
Pendleton 378K - Polled Purebred (Pillar - Barbossa)
Kash 403K - Fleckvieh (Precision - Damascus)
Bouwmeesteer 147J - Fleckvieh (Bowman - Blueprint)
Asgard 221K - Fleckvieh (Ulysses - Dirty Harry)
What’s Inside Simmental/Angus Combo Makes The Top Crossbred Cow
1
Gate Post — Bull Sale Season La saison des ventes de taureaux
16, 40
Breed Improvement — The Customer Mindset L’état d’esprit du client
24, 48
Vet’s Advice — Tubing A Calf Properly
30
What’s Happening
114
Codigo 112J - Fleckvieh (Radioactive - Raptor) Sambuca 135K - Polled Purebred (Go North - Chuckwagon)
Call for your Catalogue or view online
Dan & Karen Skeels Mackenzie & Garren
Dan: 403-783-1217 • 403-704-4474 Garren: 403-704-5784 Mackenzie: 403-704-9981 Box 1638, Rimbey, AB T0C 2J0 anchordsimmentals@gmail.com
JANUARY 2023
120 BULLS ON OFFER 85 Fleckvieh 22 Red & Black Purebreds 14 Charolais
COMMERCIAL COUNTRY VOLUME 23 ISSUE 1
Right Time
Volume 23 Issue 1 January 2023
Simmental/Angus Combo Makes The Top Crossbred Cow
S
Story By Lee Hart
outhern Saskatchewan rancher Bryce Weiss has been around the beef business, working with crossbred cattle, his whole life.
As a kid back in the late 1960s his parents were among some of the first who after a trip to France ventured into crossing Hereford cows with a Charolais bull and later crossing Red Angus with Charolais. Years later Bryce introduced a few Simmental heifers to the farm in the Cypress Hills, about 18 miles southwest of Maple Creek, SK. He became sold on the Simmental and Red Angus cross cowherd and in more recent years he's also brought Charolais genetics back into the operation to produce a very marketable bred heifer carrying a calf that is actually a three-way cross. And as part of the program at Diamond K Cattle Co., he continues to look at other crossing options, primarily based around Simmental and Red Angus genetics. He admits he isn't afraid to "think outside the box." That thinking has worked well for Bryce and his wife Dena who have been owner/operators of Diamond K Cattle Co. since 2020. Their commitment to producing quality cattle, including a successful bred replacement heifer marketing program that includes Simmental genetics, earned them the honour of being named the Saskatchewan Simmental Association Commercial Breeder of the Year in 2021. "The whole beef business is about pounds of beef and dollars," says Bryce who has focused on producing and marketing most of their heifer calves as high-quality bred replacement heifers for 25 years. "The objective is to produce the most pounds of beef in quality animals, as efficiently as possible. It also involves listening to customers and producing quality cattle that work well with their commercial beef operations." As they just wrapped up their 18th annual bred heifer sale in December — they are part of the Rock Solid Red Heifer Sale held near Piapot — the fact that 80 to 90 per cent of the heifers are bought by repeat customers, is a good indication they are doing something right. MORE THAN 300 CROSSBRED COWS The Diamond K Cattle Co. was established by the Weiss family in 1997 as Ken Weiss and his two sons Lance and Bryce amalgamated their three operations into one. Then in 2021, Bryce and Dena took over sole ownership of half of the original ranch. Today they run a herd of 340 head of crossbred cows. Bryce continues to raise crossbred replacement heifers, marketing about 120 head annually through the Rock Solid sale, to commercial beef producers from Alberta through to Ontario. Going back to the early days, the cowherd consisted of Hereford and Charolais crossbred cows. The bred heifer sales started with the Hereford/Charolais cross heifers bred to horned Hereford bulls. The tan heifer bred Hereford was very popular, but always looking to improve the sale offering, the ranch introduced Red Angus bulls in the early 2000’s. The Red Angus crossed well with the tan female, and they started selling red females bred Red Angus.
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IMPRESSED WITH SIMMENTAL "But I was also watching a neighbour's cross breeding program and they were using Simmental bulls," says Bryce. "They were getting great calf weaning weights and a crossbred cowherd with excellent maternal traits." In the spring of 2006, Diamond K purchased its first ½ blood Simmental heifers for $1,300 per head — that Bryce says "was a crazy price at that time" — from that neighbour Andy Hofer at Spring Creek Colony.
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Simmental Meet Commercial Producer’s Objectives
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