British Simmental Review 2018

Faial Harbour
Erupted volcano on Faial
Nice view down the side of
the mountain in Sao Jorge
Dargill Hoss with cows in Pico
volcano that last erupted in 1957. It had
been turned into a museum, and was very
educational and interesting.
On Wednesday morning, we took the
ferry to the longest island, Sao Jorge. We
were met by Jorge Rocha, who has 60
dairy cows and who bought five heifers.
We left the ferry for his farm, calling in to
a friend of his on the way. He has a small
herd of Limousin cattle, which were very
impressive. We headed off to view Jorge’s
dairy herd, which were not as tall as our
Holsteins, but good cattle just the same.
Lunch was at Jorge’s house; I have never
seen so much food on the table to feed ten
people – I wish I had taken a photo! After
lunch, we headed off to see his suckler
herd, and his pure Simmentals, which
looked very impressive. His cattle were not
tethered, although the occasional young
bull was. We were also taken on a tour of
the island; we headed down a road on the
side of a cliff, and ended up burning out
the brakes on the car. This didn’t seem to
concern Jorge, we just carried on to the
dairy factory where they produce a special
cheese you can only find on the island. We
returned to finish off lunch, to which Jorge’s
wife had added two more main dishes and
two more puddings! The tremendous food
really does deserve a special thank you! Full
of food, we headed back for the ferry, by
which time it was almost dark.
Thursday was a later start, so I decided
to have breakfast at the B & B. Banana
and honey with cold rice pudding was not
what I had expected, but it tasted very
good. Early afternoon, I was picked up by
Jenna to look at our other bull, who was
at the farm of Jose Silva. He had bought
the bull to run with some females that
he had imported from Southern Ireland.
This bull had not been used as quickly,
and had grown on to a larger size; some
of his calves on the ground looked very
promising. Some of the breeders had been
sent in the wrong genetic direction, and, as
a result, the cows were lacking milk.
Jenna took me to see some of the feed
lots that the family run, and they explained
that there were only two main buyers of
meat on the islands, therefore pricing is
almost fixed by the purchasing groups.
All males are kept entire, and killed for
veal at 10 months of age. The remainder
of the meat, including steaks, are from
females over the age of three, which would
normally have had a calf first.
On Friday morning, Jenna arrived early to
drop me off with Maria. She was involved in
organising her local cattle show, and would
catch up with us later in the day. Maria’s
husband Jose, is very proud of his herd of
Simmental, Charolais and Limousin cattle,
which are grazed up in the mountains all
over the island. Maria and Jose spend their
days going from one side of Pico to the
other, crossing over mountains, covering
a large distance to see their cattle. The
cattle themselves were in good condition
considering the dry climate, and there
was a very good bull calf which they were
considering keeping for breeding.
The three islands are all different in
landscape and farming practices. Farmers
on Faial appeared to have smaller pieces of
land, hence the cattle were tethered. They
seemed to have more grass than arable,
but it was still very fertile. Sao Jorge was
more like our own landscape, with the
added bonus of grass that grows all year
round. Pico was a large mountain covered
with ash with a small covering of earth,
and appeared to have the most difficult
conditions in which to raise cattle.
A group of us talked at length about
how to improve the breed out there.
The islanders are fully aware that
improvements need to be made, and are
talking about coming back to the UK in the
future.
I would like to thank Jenna and Maria for
all their hard work and organisation, and to
everyone who took the time to meet with
me during my visit. Your hospitality was
second to none.
SIMMENTAL REVIEW 2018
www.britishsimmental.co.uk
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