The British Simmental Review 2022

Scottish Simmental Club
Report by Richard Pettit, Secretary
Through 2022 the country thankfully started moving out of
the covid restrictions and back to ‘some kind of normality.’
Scotland is of course the home of the Stirling sales, the
breed’s largest sales of the year, and it was another very strong year
of performance. Breed record sale averages were achieved at both
the February and May fixtures, and were capped off by yet another
record average in October of £7,559, up by £1,597 on the year.
Scottish vendors and buyers were very much to the fore, and then
again at the second staging of the Next Generation Sale at Carlisle
in December where they featured in the championship awards
and leading prices on the day. Well done to all of the breeders and
buyers involved across these sales in the year. Avoiding duplication,
please see all of the respective reports and pictures from the Stirling,
Aberdeen, Next Gen II, and Annick Dispersal sales within the sales
section of this year’s Review.
Annual General meeting
Kicking off the year at the Scottish Club’s AGM, Patricia Goldie was
re-elected as Chairperson with Jim Dyet as Vice-Chairperson. New
members elected to the committee included: Gavin Brown, Ross
King, Geoff Anderson and Tom Bruce. Big thanks are extended to
retiring committee members Jonathan Gunn, Nadia Gwynne, and
Emma McAlister for their time, input and hard work.
Highland Show
It goes without saying that everyone was delighted to get back to
the Royal Highland show! The Simmental judge was Joe Wilson,
Ballinalare herd, Northern Ireland, who placed Islavale Lullaby as his
Supreme Champion, from Reece and Andrew Simmers, Backmuir,
with Annick Gingers Lucia from the Annick herd taking Reserve.
Gerald and Morag Smith were awarded the Male Championship with
Drumsleed Legacy.
On the Friday night in a packed marquee of members and friends,
everyone enjoyed a hog roast with some ‘extended’ socialising and
plenty of laughs. Along with the Society, the Club also extended
some hospitality to the breed’s bull buyers of the year and this again
went extremely well. Please see the show section in the Review for
the full show report and pictures, and see here some additional
presentation pics.
Simmental Promotion at Scotsheep
In early June the Scottish Club joined forces with the Society to
have a breed promotional stand at Robert & Hazel McNee’s Over
Finlarg Farm, Tealing, Dundee, who along with their children Kate &
Alan, hosted a memorable NSA Scotsheep 2022 event. The McNees
run the Finlarg pedigree Simmental herd within their 740-acre unit
and the Simmental fingerprint both pedigree and commercial was
very visible on what was a cracking day. On the promotional stand
the Simmentals ‘shared’ a display pen of quality Sim Luings, the
increasingly popular and easy managed suckler females, along with
the Luing Cattle Society and which drew much attention.
Phill Simmers being congratulated
by Club Chairperson Trish Goldie on
winning the Supreme Championship
with Islavale Lullaby.
Matt Gilliland accepting the Reserve
Championship award on behalf of the
late LD Quarm for Annick Ginger’s
Lucia from Judge Joe Wilson.
SimLuing heifer at Scotsheep.
Gerald Smith accepting the Male
Championship award for Drumsleed
Legacy from Judge Joe Wilson.
John Barlow accepting the Junior
Championship award for Denizes
Monty from Judge Joe Wilson.
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