The British Simmental Review 2022

the homozygous polled bull Sneumgaard Imperator, as a threemonth-old
calf from Denmark. Michael was over there judging and
visited the herd – they had two exceptional cows and he was a son of
one of them.
We have been gradually introducing
the polled gene over the years,
slowly, in order to also maintain the qualities
that our herd has become known for.
Imperator has helped accelerate this.”
Imperator has been breeding well and as a result, 75% of the cows in
the herd are now polled. The Robsons are also using a home-bred
son of Imperator, Kilbride Farm Jetstream, which is out of a Brennin
daughter. Of his first crop of calves, four sons sold to pedigree herds
in 2022, and a further three are entered for the upcoming sale at
Stirling in February ‘23.
In addition to realising the long-term benefits of breeding polled
cattle, the Robsons also appreciate the advantages that new
technology has brought to the breed. “We have always supported
performance recording and can see the improvements that
have been made in the breed as a result of having access to this
information. If we’re importing a stock bull, we always take into
account the growth rates and calving ease, from whatever system
that country has. We have a 300-sow pig unit and have witnessed the
major improvements that the pig industry has been able to make by
using this technology.”
At present, the cattle herd comprises just short of 100 breeding
pedigree cows, with half calving in the spring, from the end of
March, and the rest between August and October. Norman says they
run a commercial system and the cows are ‘not pampered in any
way’. “They are housed on slats through the winter and they need to
be very structurally sound to hold up to those conditions. The cows
are naturally fleshed so they are cheap to keep over the winter. The
spring calves are speaned when they come in, at six to seven months
old, with the early autumn-born calves speaned in April when they
go out to grass and the later autumn ones kept on the cow until
June,” he adds.
Bulls and heifers have always been sold at Society sales at Stirling
and Dungannon, but also privately, off the farm. This method
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