Volume 16 Issue 2 September 2016 What’s Inside Dave Raymond
Raymond Land & Cattle Ltd. — Simmental/Angus Cross Makes Excellent Replacement Heifers
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Gate Post — The Canadian Simmental Convention – A Huge Success!
12 Breed Improvement — Setting the Profit Bar
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Vet’s Advice — The Use Of NonSteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs
26 Birth Weight’s Effect On Profit – Part 1
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What’s Happening
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Publication Mail Agreement # 40012794
Commercial Country
Simmental/Angus Cross Makes Excellent Replacement Heifers
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Story By Lee Hart
f the customer is always right, then Dave Raymond figures their family ranch in southern Saskatchewan, must be on the right track. They continue to produce high quality, Simmental/Red Angus cross bred replacement heifers, in demand by commercial beef producers across Western Canada. Marketing bred heifers isn’t the only part of the beef program on the sixth generation operation, Raymond Land & Cattle Ltd., located in Aneroid, Saskatchewan. They also produce an excellent, uniform group of steers regularly, sought after by order buyers. After more than 20 years of ongoing, fine-tuning, and selection improvement in their breeding program, the replacement heifer business continues to be a very profitable enterprise for the extensive mixed farming operation. The ranch has a 20,500-acre land base, with about 7000 acres cropped in grains and pulses, while the remaining acres are devoted to forage and pasture production. “My dad started the replacement heifer program in 1995,” says Dave Raymond, who farms with his wife Crystal, their three young children, as well as Dave’s parents Alan and Elva Raymond. “It started small and we’ve just kept growing, and working to improve the quality of the cattle over the years. I guess we are searching for the perfect animal, and we’ll probably never get there, but we are always looking for improved traits in both the Simmental and Angus breeds that all contribute to producing good quality heifers.” Raymond Land & Cattle is running a 1,100 head predominantly Red Angus cow herd. Roughly half of those are bred back to Angus, while the other half are bred to Red Simmental. All calves are backgrounded over winter on the farm. Steers and feeder heifers are marketed to finishing operations in March at 900 to 1000 pounds. Heifer calves from the straight Angus breeding program will be kept as replacements for their own cow herd, while heifers from the Simmental/Angus program will be bred to Angus and marketed as bred heifers at 18 to 19 months of age. ADDING VALUE “It is a value-added opportunity for the ranch,” says Dave. The good quality crossbred replacement heifers can be marketed for considerably more as bred heifers than they could just going into the meat market. “We’re producing good heifers that have appealed to our clients over the years,” he says. “We have many repeat customers who look to us to supply most or all of the replacement cattle for their own operations. They see the value in the cattle we are producing.” Last year, these half Simmental/half Angus bred heifers fetched an average selling price of just under $3,500 each at their annual bred heifer sale in early December. The ranch was established in 1907 by Raymond ancestors. Dave’s grandfather at one time produced purebred, horned Hereford cattle and later, the farm also produced purebred, Red Angus cattle. Dave’s father first became interested in Simmental cattle a number of years ago, recognizing the value of the hybrid vigour achieved in crossing British breeds with the larger continental breeds. While they worked
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