The Slide-Show & Pitch

Along with printed materials, Travers most aggressive pitch was his slide show presentation. The 26 slides have long disappeared, but the script (lecture) of 3 pages (legal length) with 26 points begins thus:



Most of page 1 of the slide-show script


Points (& slides) 5 through 14 profile the Simmental traits (gentleness-5, meat-carrying conformation6-7, hardiness-8, fertility-9, dual purpose-10, high butterfat milk for max. calf growth-11, weight gains on mostly forage feed-12, performance standards-13, bull markets-14); and 15 to 26 make comparisons:



portion of page 2 of the slide-show script




all of page 3 of the slide-show script



Show & Tell Circuit

In the beginning, with Parisien in quarantine, SBL didn’t have a lot to show except brochures and pictures from Switzerland. Thus, there was one “soon-to-be-available” bull and a whole lot of talk (that some thought might just be bull, too) with slides .

But for Travers, it was a story whose time had come and negatives did not faze him. He knew what he knew. He just needed cross-bred facts to sink the message home. As it was, one bull was going to have to carry the Simmental message for a whole year pretty much by himself. His would be the first cross-bred Simmental calves on North American soil. The first to be compared. The first to test the performance waters. The first to prove the enthusiasm. The first to knock up against the entrenched N.A. breed practices.

In the meantime, dissemination of information was critical. The first SBL brochures were apparently supplied by the Swiss Cattle Breeders Federation with SBL appending its name, though soon SBL’s name was part of the Swiss printing.

Front & back covers of 4-page brochures used by SBL circa 1967-69

With the demand for more information, SBL soon wrote up legal-length, loose-leaf folios to hand out. By 1969 they had their own mostly black-and-white, 12-page brochure with pictures and performance testing data.

Back & front covers of an SBL 4-page brochure, circa 1969

back cover of a Swiss-printed, 8-page brochure, circa 1970

By about 1970, SBL had professional brochures, beautifully photographed and planned by Walt Browarny Photographics, Calgary. Each year required updates to profile new imports. (I am hoping to be able to repoduce the covers of these to insert here at some future date.)
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1. Beef Today Yearbook: ’77:84

Imports selected ~ 1969

Travers' passport shows that he was again in Switzerland by July 11, 1969 making final selection for that import year. His Swiss colleagues would have laid the ground work before this buying trip so the way was again well-prepared for the selection of top-performing cattle.

The 1969 Simmental imports (in quarantine till Spring 1970) were:

Bulls:	Date of Calving
Beat MM2911 (SBL 8Z; ASA 216; CSA 41)	8 Dec 1968
Granit MM7503 (SBL 9Z; ASA 217; CSA 45)	24 Dec 1968
Mars MM5840 (SBL 41A; ASA 218; CSA 48)	6 Jan 1969
Kilian MM2491 (SBL 45A; ASA 219; CSA 47)	23 Jan 1969

Heifers:	Date of Calving
Daniela (CSA 39)	n/a
Fasan (CSA 40)	n/a
Berna  (CSA 42)	n/a
Bergere  (CSA  43)	n/a
Diana  (CSA  44)	n/a
Jolanda  (CSA 46)	n/a

- bottom portion of an SBL ad in the Simmental Shield magazine, March 1971 (inside cover)
- top portion of the ad featured the 1969/70 imported bulls: Mars, Beat, Granit, & Kilian

First Sale ~ Dr. Allan Dixon

In November 1968, Dr. Allan Dixon (a Calgary doctor with a ranch west of Nanton) bought 13 of SBL’s first crossbred calves right off their dams for the almost unheard of price of $500.00 each. That news item alone injected considerable interest in this new breed, building on the mounting interest generated at the Calgary Stampede the previous July when the Lacombe Research station had displayed a fullblood cow and calf. Canadian ranchers were beginning to be persuaded, but not in time to come within the 1968/69 import year. The 1968 permits for Simmental had already been issued—only 9 of them—with 8 going to SBL and 1 to Dr. Dixon. However, the next import year, would prove the first big Simmental year for breeders other than SBL. Finally, they were getting the picture—a picture soon enhanced when Dr. Allan Dixon’s first 7/8 heifer brought him $25,000.00.

news item from Cardston Alberta's local paper, Cardston Unlimited, Nov. 13, 1968

Walt Browarny ~ Photographer

Walt Browarny’s name is immediately recognizable by most in the cattle industry. In large measure, his full-time career shift was prompted by the importation of the exotics and the consequent A.I. agenda. People wanted to see what bull they were committing to and so the demand for his livestock photography escalated. (See his website at http://www.browarny.com/legacy/ . The new link appears to be at http://www.showchampions.com/PhotoStock and is under development as of October 2011.)

In Simmental Country magazine, August 1987:71 (“The Man With The Camera” by Ted Pritchett, pp. 67-74), we read:

The early Simmental breeders slowly came to appreciate the difference good photos could make to a bull.

[Browarny recalled] “I didn’t do the early photo work on Parisien as a young bull because one of the fellows at SBL [probably meaning Travers] had the philosophy he’d just shoot a pile of pictures himself and eventually come up with a good one. He’d bring all these pictures in to me and I’d spread them all over the floor and sort through them. Then I’d tell him—look, here’s the best one, and is that what the bull really looks like? He had to admit no and that’s when he realized the value of our services. They also had some bulls that were difficult to picture and that’s when they finally called me. SBL then became one of my best customers.

“The first picture I took of Parisien was out at Western Breeders when he was a three year old. …”

That negative is now in a bank vault along with the other famous bulls Walter has pictured over the years and only the working negatives are kept at the photo lab.

His best customers were the bull studs because everyone soon realized they needed pictures to sell semen.

[Browarny added] “ You can talk all you want about a bull, but people still want to see a picture and we were kept busy working seven days a week, often shooting 10-15 bulls a day."

One of his early videos of Parisien can be seen at: http://www.browarny.com/legacy/video/clip17.html [New link under development at http://www.showchampions.com/PhotoStock .]

In time, it is hoped that more of Browarny photos of those early SBL bulls will be available on his Walt Browarny Legacy site at: http://www.browarny.com/legacy/gallery.html [New link under development: see http://www.showchampions.com/PhotoStock .]

[Added October 31, 2011] We were sad to hear of Walt's passing August 24, 2011. His obituary can be found at http://www.mhfh.com/browarny-walter-walt-harry/  and http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/todays-paper/Walt+Browarny+Noted+livestock+photographer+start+Denver+show/5318953/story.html

Simmental Associations ~ ASA 1968; CSA 1969

Canadian Simmental Association (CSA): In the Guest Editorial of Simmental Country, August 1987, Wes Alm wrote:

During the late 1960’s and the formation of the Canadian Simmental Association there were many tireless workers—people with great vision of the future and they were dedicated to the cause of Simmental promotion. / Two individuals that stood tall in the saddle come readily to mind, Dr. Allan Dixon and Travers Smith, men with great fortitude. Their overwhelming enthusiasm for Simmental was contagious and their contribution to the establishment of Simmental in North America was beyond measure in the respective short years they had. (p. 50)

The CSA was founded in 1968. The application for incorporation under the Livestock Pedigree Act was made and subsequently approved on February 29, 1969. The first organizational meeting was held in Calgary on August 1, 1969 following several meetings around the country where the constitution was gradually developed. Fenton Webster recalled:

After some show in the U.S. [1968, Sheridan WY], Ray Woodward, Dale Lynch, Lavon Sumption, Travers and I stayed up all one night putting by-laws together. Travers was determined to do things right and he wanted everything based on performance. Originally, we had an idea to require bulls to index 105 to be recorded, but that, like many other ideas, got watered down. / Lavon and I did all the organizing of that first meeting in Calgary [Aug. 1, 1969]. … Travers was elected the first President and I stayed on as Secretary until we could afford a full time person. (Beef Today Yearbook’77:86)

Traver's hometown newspaper, Cardston Unlimited, of August 27, 1969 (p. 1) reported the founding board of directors as:

    Fenton Webster of Mt. View, Travers Smith of Cardston, Ross Mitchell of Manitoba, Dr. Allen Dixon of Calgary, Lee Rollins of Edmonton, Ted Tremunde of B.C., Hans Ulrich of Claresholm, LeRoy Berry of Sask., and George McLean of Toronto. Dr. Lavon Sumption was elected as honorary President. This group appointed Travers Smith as president and Fenton Webster as Sec. Treas. of the new organization. The office will be in Cardston at the present time. ...
     A delegation from Switzerland was present for the founding of the Canadian Simmental Association. Included were: Dr. Nabholz, Veterinary General of Switzerland, Mr. Herner Hyss, the manager of the Swiss Cattle Breeders Federation (the organization that exports Swiss cattle from Switzerland to many part of the world); Dr. Hans Henger, the president of the Simmental Cattle Association who has also directed the production of a number of films on Swiss Cattle as well as writing several books on them, and Mrs. Hon Henger.
    The meeting also drew in people from points all across Canada and the United States.
    Speaker at the meeting was Dr. Henger who presented Travers Smth with an honorary medal for his efforts in opening the way for bringing the Simmental Breed of Cattle into Canada.
    An evening banquet was attended by 200 people who were served a delicious supper featuring cross-bred Simmental beef.
    The guest speaker for the evening was the Veterinary General of Canada Dr. Kenneth Wells.
    Mr. Wyss presented a lovely hand carved Simmental cow to the associatiion for their office. Dr. Nabholz also spoke expressing appreciation from the group for this opportunity of coming to Canada. ...

From its very beginning, the CSA set out specific rules for cattlemen in an upgrading program through crossbreeding and AI. These rules incorporated many of Travers’ beliefs and credos, including: performance testing, record keeping, and indexing; and his objection to “competitive live shows.”

In a fact-sheet that SBL prepared in response to the myriad inquires it was receiving, the CSA-proposed rules were outlined in brief with the last two stated as follows:

12. Simmental cattle will not be entered in any competitive live shows because the judging criteria of live shows are inconsistent with sound performance selection programs.
13. Simmental may be displayed at exhibitions and fairs for purposes of sales promotion. Performance data will be emphasized.

This objection to competitive shows ran deep with Travers. He felt that show judging had done almost irreparable injury to the British breeds and that Simmental would suffer the same fate if the focus became show judging instead of performance.

Concerning Travers’ long standing objection to show judging, B.Y. Williams wrote:

I was manager of a credit union and also in the cattle business in a small way. We often discussed the adversities of the business, the virtues of the native breeds—and lack of them—and how to make a living out of a beautiful, big, fat “ideal” Hereford cow that turned in a scrawny 350-pound calf at weaning time. Well, Travers’ contention was that the “egg heads” were all wrong. Travers’ contention was that judging cattle by type instead of performance was our ruination. (Simmental Shield:March1974:30)

Current Canadian Simmental Association website is at http://www.simmental.com/
For a historical list of the CSA board of directors see: http://www.simmgene.com/pdf/register/40years_208.pdf

American Simmental Association (ASA): In part, because of greater interest in Simmental in the U.S., the American Simmental Association had been organized in October 1968. In the Farm Quarterly—Spring 1969, Charles R. Koch reported in his “Livestock” column that:

Probably never before in the history of breed associations has there been such an enthusiastic launching of such an organization. The enthusiasm is even more impressive in view of the fact most of the charter members of the association have never seen a purebred Simmental of either sex; that the only representatives of the breed now in this country are F1 calves sired by artificial insemination; … / Nevertheless, some 260 cattlemen from Florida to the State of Washington converged upon the Cosmopolitan Hotel, in Denver, early in January to attend the first annual meeting of this association and a high percentage of them left the meeting as dues-paying charter members at $100.00 per crack.

The Western Livestock Journal of January 1969 reported on the first annual meeting of the American Simmental Association as follows:

Cattlemen jam Simmental meeting
DENVER – The American Simmental Assn. had 34 members up to the coffee-break time at the first annual meeting here, Jan 10.
Approximately 50 people were expected to show up at that meeting but 250 jammed the room, representing almost every major beef breeding state and Canada. … At coffee-break time 84 cattlemen joined the association and before nightfall the membership had increased further, according to Dale Lynch, Cary, Ill., association secretary. …

Current American Simmental Association website is at http://simmental.org/site/
See also Forty Years and Counting at http://www.simmgene.com/pdf/register/40years_208.pdf


bbb year was probably 1970

 

Imports Selected ~ 1968

SBL’s third year of imports were selected by Travers and Hans Ulrich when they made a trip to Switzerland in June 1968. Their Swiss colleagues had laid the ground work before this buying trip so the way was well prepared for the selection of top-performing cattle.

The 1968 Simmental imports (in quarantine till Spring 1969) were:

Bulls:	Date of Calving
Lohner MM4780 (SBL 1Z; ASA 9; CSA 10)	4 Jan 1968
Galant MM1060 (SBL 2Z; ASA 10; CSA 11)	25 Jan 1968
Florian MM1745 (SBL 5Z; ASA 11; CSA 13)	2 Mar 1968

Heifers:	Date of Calving
Lerch (CSA 9)	n/a
Petula (SBL 4Z; CSA 12)	n/a
Sonja (CSA 14)	n/a
Tulipa (CSA 15)	n/a

Letter to B.Y. Williams ~ June 19, 1968

Below is the reporting letter that Travers sent to his colleague, B.Y. Williams, about the 1968 cattle buying trip to Switzerland.