The British Simmental Review 2022

We considered what the
commercial buyer was
looking for – easy fleshing,
shapely bulls, with length and
back-ends – and from that time
on, we began focussing on
breeding that type of bull.”
This new objective clearly worked. Since 2010, the
Barlows’ seventy-three bulls sold at Society sales
in Stirling alone, have averaged £5,600. The family
have built up customers for every bull born in the
herd – those not sold at Society sales find homes
with dairy customers and commercial herds. To
breed bulls with the desired attributes, John says
it is the female lines they have concentrated on
improving and he cites the privately bought bull
Ashland Tornado as a turning point.
Denzies Lancelot 30,000gns. Top price Simmental in 2022 and sold at Stirling February Sale.
“We bought Tornado at five months old from
Pat and Frank Kelly in Northern Ireland, having
researched the bull’s family line. He has gone onto
breed some good sons, but it’s his daughters that
have been particularly impressive – they have bred
sons to 30,000gns and grandsons to 20,000gns.
They are very well-balanced females, which is the
type we aim to breed; structurally correct, medium
sized cows that will do well with various bulls,” says
John, who suggests this concentration on female
lines probably comes as a result of their dairy
background.
“That’s how we think with the dairy cows. They
tend to breed daughters like the mother, so if we
can get good female lines, they will breed good
calves with different bulls. We do a lot of research
into bloodlines and study what works.”
Denizes Monty 20,000gns. Supreme Champion at Stirling in October 2022.
This approach results in the Barlows often
buying in females from particular family lines off
other high health herds and then breeding them
with home-bred bulls. The 30,000gns Denizes
Lancelot, sold in February 2022 at Stirling, had two
generations of home-bred bulls on the sire side,
while the dam was Denizes Hannadante, a 13-yearold
daughter of Ashland Tornado. Likewise,
Denizes Monty, which secured the Barlows their
first overall championship at Stirling and went onto
sell for 20,000gns in October 2022, is sired by the
home-bred Denizes Hamish.
“Hamish is out of our ‘golden cow’ Auroch Eve,
which we bought as a calf. She won several calf
shows and went onto win at the Royal Highland
Show twice. Hamish was her first natural calf and
was winning calf shows too, until he broke his leg
at 11-months-old. We thought so much of him
that we paid to have it operated on and kept him
as a stock bull. His son Monty made 20,000gns
and we’ve another good son of his for Stirling in
February,” explains John.
John and Michael Barlow pictured at Stirling in February 2022.
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