FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2020
SOUTHERN LIVESTOCK STANDARD
PAGE 1B
Brought to you by American Simbrah Breeders
From the beginning of the breed Sklar and Son have raised Simbrah cattle By Martha Hollida Garrett Darrell Sklar of Edna, Texas, first became involved with Simbrah cattle when the breed was in its infancy, even before the name Simbrah was attached to the 5/8 Simmental x 3/8 Brahman cross. In the 1970s, the family business name — Sklar and Son — stood for Darrell and his dad, Ira. Today it stands for Darrell and his son, Shane. Shane represents the fourth generation of the Sklar family to raise cattle along the Texas Gulf Coast, which includes divisions in the three counties of Jackson, Victoria and Bee. The Sklars’ lifelong experiences in commercial cattle ranching influenced their move to Simbrah genetics. “They have been good to us and have helped us survive the down markets and several droughts.
Simbrahs make you money, and that’s the most important reason we have them,” said Sklar. “We got our start with this breed in 1977. We were running purebred Brahmans and commercial cattle at the time,” he recalled. “We started putting Simmental bulls on our Brahman females and then we utilized semen from the great fullblood bull King Arthur on a group of Brahman cows to establish a herd of halfblood females that we bred up from there. We were involved with Simbrah when it was called Brahmental and played an active role in developing a leadership team for the breed.” After breeding their Brahman cows to Simmental bulls, they crossed the resulting heifers back to Simmental bulls. As their developing Simbrah herd
grew, they sold the Brahman cows to neighbors and bought back their heifer calves if they bred them to Simmental bulls. In the ’80s and ’90s, the program was very active on the seedstock level. They had cattle on display on the show circuit before there were Simbrah shows. “There was a time early on when the legendary showman LaRue Douglas hauled Simbrah cattle to shows to just expose them to cattlemen and provide us a way to promote the young breed. We had cattle in those early strings, “ he said. When Simbrah shows were added to the major stock shows, the Sklar program accumulated wins including a prestigious Houston Reserve Grand Championship . In addition to breeding up to Simbrah, the program
Shane, Jill, Maggie, John Rhett and Vivian Sklar.
added genetics from several sources and the Sklar family was very active in the Texas Simmental/Simbrah Association activities. Today, Sklar and Son runs about 135 purebred Simbrah females, along with a herd of Hereford females that are bred to Brahman bulls to produce Tiger Stripes. They also have a herd of Tiger Stripes that they breed to Hereford bulls to produce a 3/4 Hereford x 1/4 Brahman female. All of their females are marketed to ranchers across the Texas Gulf Coast and repeat buyers play a huge role in their success. “Our Simbrah females are very marketable and they almost sell themselves, plus there is a strong demand for the Tiger Stripes and the three-quarter Hereford females, too,” he said. “We sell most of our females today as yearlings. We have always had a strong demand for our Simbrahs and that’s as good
Darrell and Mary Sklar reason as any to keep rais- three and pen of five heifer ing them for more than 40 competitions at county years,” Sklar said. fairs. They also sell some “Our heifers have done purebred Simbrah bulls very well for our young cuslocally and again, many of tomers and we enjoy seeing these go to repeat cus- our females in these comtomers. petition arenas. Shane’s “We are not in the bull three children have also selling business. We have started exhibiting in these chosen to concentrate on competitions and at the last developing the females we county fair one had a pen of produce and spend our Simbrahs, one had a pen of time marketing those,” he Tiger Stripes and one had a said. pen of the three-quarter The majority of the Hereford females. We were male calves from the three able to showcase our entire herds are sold as weaned program,” he said. calves through local aucIn years past, they utitions. lized A.I., but now have Sklar and Son has also elected to use sons of some found a strong interest of the top A.I. sires in the from youth exhibitors, breed. including those who are “The bulls we select for (Continued on page 4) competing in the pen of
Purebred Simbrahs are a key part of Sklar and Son’s diversified operation.