21st Century ~ “New Dawn for the Cowman”?

~
The first North American Simmental breeders in the late 1960’s began their programs committed to breed improvement. After a period of distraction by some (see yesterday’s post), the focus, once again, seems to be returning to performance testing, evaluation, and breed improvement.

From Simmental Country, March 2007:

“The Progeny Testing and SMARTag Program” by Alana Lunn, p. 10: The CSA has initiated two new, exciting programs for our members that will help you providing information and service to your customers. These are the progeny Testing Program and the SMARTag Program. …”

“Progeny Test Program” by Sean McGrath, p. 16: “… Increasingly in beef production, value is being determined by differentiation and the ability to identify those differences. … / The Canadian Simmental Association is currently ramping up their 2007 progeny testing program to obtain commercial calving, growth, and carcass data on Simmental sired calves. This effort, in addition to breeder efforts to collect carcass data, and overall efforts to obtain ultrasound data on seedstock represent a significant commitment to ensuring the future profitability of the commercial beef industry by identification of end product attributes and the genetics that produce them. …”

“A Look Back” by Bill Macleod, pp. 34-35: The Canadian Simmental Association has experienced a number of very significant changes over the period of time that I have been associated with the Board. The first one that comes to mind is the work of the Promotions and Marketing Committee which has changed the focus of the industry from issuing registration papers to promoting Simmental cattle as having a greater role in the commercial beef industry. This emphasis has led, in part, to the dramatic increase in the sale of Simmental cattle to commercial cattle breeders and to a far greater influence on the genetics of the commercial beef industry. This dramatic shift, from emphasizing the purebred industry as an end unto itself to that as a seed stock industry, to a much more inclusive role in the beef industry as a whole has been a turning point for the Simmental breed. This emphasis has led to the significant increase of Simmental genetics as seed stock providers. …
“A second significant change which has come about in the operation and role of the CSA is the focus on data collection introduced by the Breed Improvement Committee. Increased emphasis has been placed on the role of EPDs [Expected Progeny Difference] in the evaluation of cattle and the number of traits being collected. These traits now include, not only a number [of] convenience traits such as calving ease, docility and body condition scores, but economic traits such as weaning weights, yearling weights, rib eye and back fat scores and scrotal measurements. The more information that can be collected on an individual animal, the greater the potential for making better breeding and selection decisions.”

This appears to be a 21st Century “New Dawn for the Cowman”—not one that Travers anticipated when he wrote an article entitled “New Dawn for the Cowman” in the Commercial West magazine, August 12, 1972 (pp. 49-50). He acknowledged those who had prepared the way for the 1960’s cattle revolution, but he never imagined that the pendulum trend he thought had been overcome would swing backward once again for a time. He wrote:

“Through the years, a few persistent and dedicated men in the land searched, selected and developed more profitable cattle, but very little progress was made in profitable beef production until around 1960-61. When a very faint light of change appeared lit by a very few scattered ranchers, researchers, geneticists and businessmen, and by 1968 this small” light had grown to be a steady flame until now in 1972 it is referred to as a prairie fire lighting this whole continent. This change has been wrought in all sections of the industry and in every breed and beef improvement association. A most intense and dramatic improvement has come from the introduction of the continental or so called “exotic” breeds into our crossbreeding. …

“Production Efficiency: In America, while the pendulum had swung one way and started back, stockman in other countries had continued on from centuries back improving production efficiency. Switzerland held the lead with two dual purpose breeds, delivering seed stock to many parts of the world. …

“Men can, through their co-operative management blend together all the resources at hand into a formula to bring about a profitable economic agricultural structure, and also a better balanced ecology. …

“There is still lots of room for improvement in our economy, not alone towards profit, but for building a better land that our inheritance might be passed on to those after us better than we received. ...”

Travers’ enduring dream would probably be: 1) no more pendulum swings; 2) forward movement for centuries to come in breed improvement; and 3) that we would pass on to those who come after an inheritance better than we received.

Human Performance

Wikimedia Commons ~ Public Domain

 ~
Travers was just as adamant about the performance of mankind—in improving their lives and in making positive contributions to family and society. That was why he sometimes turned from promoting Simmental to talking of his belief in God and in handing out copies of the Book of Mormon—a book of scripture that he held in esteem alongside the Holy Bible. Instances of his spiritual asides were sometimes reported in the media, and a blog post referencing some instances can be found at http://simmental-sbl.blogspot.com/2011/11/performance-testing-for-mankind.html

At his funeral service (February 11, 1974), all three speakers spoke of Travers’ faith in God. His friend Oakley Thompson said:

“Travers didn’t separate temporal and spiritual matters. Often times we hear people excusing themselves, “Well, that’s business, and this is church. You don’t mix the two.” They do mix, and Travers kept them together all the time wherever he went, and in the work that he has done. He said the Book of Mormon was his passport to the countries he went to, dealing on this Simmental work that he started to take up. Wherever he went, he preached the Gospel to those that he met up with. On one occasion he handed out 26 Books of Mormon to one group, and 39 to another group as they were getting on chartered buses, and he said they all acted eager to receive them. I thought Travers’ motto might well be stated as the Scripture which says, “Oh ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve Him with all your heart, might, mind and strength that ye may be able to stand blameless before God at the last day.” And that was the way he lived his life.”

His friend and stake president, Fred Spackman, said:

“[Travers] had some priorities in his life. His first priority was his family. … He had great concern and a great love for them. His second priority was his duty to the church to which he belonged and in which he believed, and which he knew was true, and he served faithfully many long hours in striving to do the things he was called to do. His third priority was his business, and I don’t suppose that any of us can realize the tremendous impact that this man, with his courage, has had on the cattle industry in this country and in the United States.
“Travers never gave up. One man in the government with whom he dealt, and told me this story, finally said to him, “I have never seen such a stubbornly persistent individual in all my life.” And he meant that as a compliment, and you know that Travers was like that.
“His other priority in his life was to be a good citizen, a law-abiding citizen, and he was that, and he served in many capacities in our community and our area. Why did he have these priorities? I can only tell you that he felt the same way that the prophet Joseph Smith felt about the purpose of this life. The prophet Joseph Smith said: ‘Man is an eternal being. The resurrection from the dead, if quickened by the Celestial Glory, restores him to life with all his bodily and mental powers and faculties, and consequently associates him with his family, friends, and kindred as one of the necessary links of the chain which connects the great and loyal family of Heaven and Earth in one eternal bond of kindred affection and association.’”

Robert Sackley, another dear friend, said:

“I think I have some obligation to him and, humbly, to you who are in the audience, whether you be Latter-day Saints or not Latter-day Saints, to express a point of view that he would express. …
“Travers believed that God commanded the earth, and he believed also that He commanded him and that he belonged to Him, and that it was according to the Lord’s will and pleasure whatever he should do. …
“I would just like to be personal for a moment. I flew in here, as the family knows, not so long ago. … I spent some time alone in Travers’ room, and we held hands together and we prayed together. He said, “Will you talk at my funeral?” And I didn’t tell Belle that he had asked me to talk at his funeral because I knew she would anyway. And I said, “What do you want me to talk about?” By the way, he hadn’t even told the family that he thought he was going to die. He wanted to spare his mother that horrible feeling of anguish and difficulty, but I knew that he knew, and he said, “Tell the people that the religion that I have embraced,” and he said it in a shocking and difficult voice, and you men who know Travers and know he spoke quietly anyway—and he had a great struggle speaking in the last hours of his life—”tell them that I belonged to a cause that I believed in. They know me as a cattleman, many of them, and they know me as a businessman and some of them know me as a pretty hard-headed fellow.” He said, “You and I have been together on many occasions,” and there are some of you in the room that Travers and I have met with, and I would like to tell you, all of you, that he believed and understood and accepted implicitly his religious code; that it was the pivotal part of his life that belonged to him, and that at no time that I ever knew him did he flinch in that particular area. He stayed with it all the way. … The process by which he spread his business was a religious process. … His whole life was guided by virtue of the fact that he accepted the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
“And if there is any message that I could give, humbly and sincerely at his death, it would be to ask you, whether you be members of his church or not, to take a look at it and see what it teaches, and see why he was motivated in it.

Performance Testing for Mankind

Travers' love of his God and his belief that performance testing was not just for livestock was evident to almost all who knew him. His enthusiasm for sharing his beliefs is borne out in the following accounts.

The first comes from the John Schmidt’s … agriculture Alberta column (Calgary Herald) of September 20, 1972. John Schmidt wrote about a cattlemen tour

deep into Mormon country to visit … Simmental Breeders Cardston Ltd., headed by Travers Smith. ... Following lunch, something happened which caught us off base in this computer age, but it demonstrated the fact that cattle men like Travers Smith don’t put all their faith in electronic gadgetry. There is something higher. He presented us all with The Book of Mormon, and gave this profound testimony: “There is one thing more valuable to me than that herd of cattle you saw today. It is this Book. In it you can read about the performance test of human endeavor on this earth.” It was something to make one pause and consider very deeply.

The second account was recorded by Travers' eldest daughter following a December 21, 1973 conversation. On the way home from the Calgary airport, Travers told his daughters about his recent experience in Billings, Montana. His daughter wrote:

The Montana Simmental Assoc. had a conference at which they honored dad in October. ... All the men at the convention were wearing “Thank You Travers” buttons. Mr. Furgeson, the secretary of the organization said a lot, & kind of instigated the affair. When Mr. Furgeson presented Dad with the trophy[-clock] honoring him. He said Dad could answer in only 12 words. [Previously Mr. F. had given Dad a bad time about not being a good enough salesman (not talking enough)]. When Dad replied, he said that he was going to pull a switch on Mr. F. and say a lot. Dad said that the spirit there was really a good spirit so he felt moved to speak on more of a spiritual [plane]. He spoke about performance testing in cattle & compared it to us as God’s children & our performance tests. He referred them to the Bible as being our handbook for personal performance. He also expressed to them that it was by the hand of the Lord that he brought Parisien to Canada. After his testimony the men all came forward and thanked him for his talk not the cattle. The men also honored Mr. Furgeson for all that he had done to keep M.S.A. on its feet. (BYSJ:Jan 9, 1974:44-5)

A third account comes from Tom and Dianne Risinger found at http://www.simmgene.com/pdf/register/40years_208.pdf :

… About the same time, we ran into Charlie Redd from Utah, who had just come back from Europe and he was raving about the Simmental cattle he saw. One day, a really nice, smart, and very intense man named Travers Smith from Cardston, Alberta, came to our house to visit with us about Simmental Cattle. He wore a suit coat with a Book of Mormon in one pocket and a photo album of Simmental cattle in the other. Here was an honest, sincere man who was definitely on a mission and believed in what he was doing. At a meeting in town that night where Travers spoke, we ordered 20 units of semen on a yellow paint calf named Parisien that, at the time, was still waiting to be released from quarantine by Canadian agricultural authorities. ...

... I’ll never forget Travers Smith. He came to visit us when we had only 40 cows and they weren’t even paid for. He had time for anyone who would listen to him. (Tom & Dianne Risinger “40 Years and counting, Part II” by Dan Rieder)

Linear Measurement

In the Simmental Country magazine, September 1980, pp. 20-28, an article entitled “Linear Measurements for Progress” detailed some of the early history of a method of performance prediction and evaluation that had “now emerged as an additional tool to help evaluate the size of an animal and give some new dimension to the weight standards.” The early pioneers of Linear Measurements were:

1)“Jan C. Bonsma of South Africa, one of the foremost genetists and leading authorities of beef cattle ecology in the world” whose system provided the average cattleman “with a fast and accurate method of evaluation”;
2) “Burl Winchester, an astute record keeping and livestock evaluation man” who had successfully used linear measurements in the evaluation of purebred Southdown sheeps; and
3) “Karney Redman, a man that had been involved with cattle measurement for many years.”

The early groundwork on linear measurement was well underway by the late 1930s, but it was not till 1969 that Winchester and Redman teamed up to apply Winchester’s system to cattle through extensive research, measurements, and comparisons to carcass information.

That was about the same time that Travers was looking for improved selection tools. He soon became aware of Karney Redman and his theories. The measurement system seemed a logical and scientific asset to progressive cattlemen. And since Travers was open to any tools that might better predict potential and performance, he was a strong advocate of Karney’s insights.

Many others were also interested in Linear Measurement and in 1982, “the first bovine linear measurement seminar in Canada was help on March 31, 1982 in Springbank – West of Calgary – sponsored by Kemna Ranches. The key speaker, Karney J. Redman, the pioneer of this system taught the 40 producers in attendance many practical skills; ...” (as reported in the Simmental Country, May 1982, p. 54)

SBL Newsletter Notes ~ 1971, 1972

From undated copy: (Nov. or Dec. 1971):

We ordered new hats at S.B.L. when five Parisien steers won the 1971 National Beef Futurity Show at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ten breeds were represented in groups of five. The average slaughter age was 441 days. The Parisien steers had the highest carcass weight per day of age. The second place group were also Simmental crossbred steers out of the S.B.L. bull Sultan. …

From March 1972:
Bidding was keen at the Fort Worth, Texas “Simmental Saturday Night Sale” on February 5th. The following is a summary of the sale results:

6 Purebred bull calves—avg ....... $ 27,100.00
1 Bred ¾ Heifer .................. $ 12,500.00
23 ¾ Open Heifers—avg......... $ 6,374.00
7 ½ Blood Cows with ¾ calves—avg... $ 5,264.00
80 Bred ½ Blood heifers—avg...... $ 1,833.00
9 ½ Blood Open Heifers—avg..... $ 1,250.00

We are proud to announce that we received $53,000.00 for our purebred bull calf which sold to Houston, February 25, 1972. This calf was sired by Beat out of Petula, May 22, 1971. The two ¾ blood heifers which we sold averaged $7,000.00.

With results like this, who can afford not to “Breed ‘em all Simmental”!!

Last December, SBL sold their commercial cow herd and our ranch operation now consists solely of percentage Simmental females. This program has a two-fold purpose. One is to furnish data for evaluation of our SBL sires, and the other is to select only the best of the high producing females to use in an upgrading program. To assist us in this program, we are using a comprehensive computerized record system to store and evaluate data obtained in our program.

Performance Reports ~ 1970

The 12-page SBL promo brochure for circa 1970 was full of b&w pictures and performance stats. Here are pages 8-11:

More Progeny Performance Reports

~

from betterbeefbusiness, january 1970, p. 19

1969 CSA flyer

Congratulations Shinrone! was the focus of a Curtiss Breeding Service ad in the Simmental Shield of November 1971, p. 11. The ad showed Browarny photos of Sultan (Second Place Sire Group), Parisien (First Place Sire Group) and Firn (Sixth Place Sire Group) ~ all SBL owned bulls. The clip below explains:

The Simmental Shield magazine, October 1971 (p. 6) also reported the Shinrone story and added:

Simmental-sired cattle also placed well at the recent Nebraska State Fair. The Sultan bull sired the Grand Champion steer, and another Simmental Breeders Cardston Ltd. bull, Galant, sired the Reserve Grand Champion.

Testing & the Test Facility in Europe

Travers’ fascination with facts to back his enthusiasm resulted in early testing of SBL bulls and in the establishment of an SBL test facility in Europe. In speaking of SBL’s commitment to performance testing, Don Jensen is again quoted:

The 2,000 head [of SBL cattle] included a test herd of 700 cows used to test the genetic potential of the bull battery. We didn’t want the maternal side to influence the test results so Travers brought up Red Angus-Hereford cows from Nebraska. Each of the seven bulls we had by this time were bred to 100 cows and the results gave us factual information on the bulls that we offered to our customers. / … Hans Ulrich was one of the people involved in the operation then and his father lived in Switzerland. SBL built a test facility over there and hired Hans’ father to manage it for them so they could pre-select the calves they brought over. They would buy about 200 calves, put them on test, then select only the top 10% of those to import. The operation became something on a very far-reaching scale. (SC:Aug1987:44)

With its European test facility, SBL was soon able to provide performance data on their imports even before importation took place. In their brochure of 1971-72, entitled, “Simmental from SBL,” they wrote:

As owners and directors of SBL, we are pleased to present our 1971-72 Simmental Beef Sire brochure. This marks our fifth year of importing from Europe and our third year of performance testing in Switzerland. / We are not aware of any other testing program to evaluate Simmental cattle for import to North America that compares with the SBL program. Mr. Hans Ulrich Sr., a reputable Swiss cattle breeder, is employed full time by SBL and carries out our comprehensive system of selection. / These pre-selected calves are then placed on a 100-day feed test. Following the test, the calves are indexed, measured and carefully scrutinized. Only the very best meet or exceed SBL’s requirements. (IFC)

SBL was also promoting its ability to select import animals for other breeders who wanted to import from Europe with a minimum of worry and a maximum of assurance for quality. In a 1971 SBL newsletter, they wrote:

S.B.L. has provided service in selecting animals in Switzerland, France, Austria and Germany; but only in Switzerland do we have an S.B.L. selection and testing program. / In our opinion Switzerland still remains the number one Simmental seed stock country of the world. Switzerland provides the greatest number of animals to select from. / S.B.L. in co-operation with the Swiss Breeders Federation have set up their own selection and testing program in Switzerland. Cattle breeders from Canada and the United States who have visited Switzerland have been high in their praise of the S.B.L. Swiss program. We have endeavored to provide the best possible animals for our customers …

SBL ad in betterbeefbusiness ~ June 1970

Words in Print

B. Travers Smith
June 2, 1972

During this decade, Travers published an article called, “Selecting the First Canadian Simmental” in the Simmental Shield, October 1970, and another called, “New Dawn for the Cowman” in the August 12, 1972 issue of the magazine, Commercial West (pp. 49-50).

In the Simmental Shield article, Travers wrote:

Our story has grown as we have traveled from place to place and met with ranchers with down-to-earth experiences, and spent from one hour to three hours at each meeting, sometimes with one man, sometimes with 40 or 50. In meetings with college and university students there have been upwards of a hundred in a group. Future Farmers of America and 4-H groups with their leaders, the university groups and their professors along with them, all seem anxious to hear the story and take the good tidings to someone else. One meeting we remember in particular was held at Augusta, Mont. where 30 ranchers met together for three hours. At the end of the meeting, one of the ranchers said that it was the best time he had had in years. We picked up a lot of good, practical information from management practices of ranchers and other experiences told at meetings and to others.

So our story has grown—not just on Simmental alone, but a story of the cattle industry and how we can improve it from one end to the other. ...

We have also been privileged to tell the story at other conventions of cattlemen, such as P.R.I. at Sheridan, Wyo.; on two occasions at Dr. Ensminger’s Beef Science School in Phoenix; a program shown at the Curtiss booth at the livestock show in Denver; Western Stock Growers’ Convention at Calgary, Alta., and a Beef Science School at Banff, Alta. We have also given presentations at A.I. technician schools back and forth across the land, but most of all the story has spread by word of mouth. People have seen the calves that have been dropped from Simmental matings with almost every breed you can imagine in the United States and Canada – from Austin Rugge’s Shorthorn cows at Garnett, Kan., to Adam Schweitzer’s Simmental-Hereford crosses at Geyser, Mon. People have seen our own calves here in southern Alberta, the purebred heifers here, and also the bulls at the A.I. studs.

All of these things spread the story, and it keeps being told over and over. We are so enthused over the possibilities of this breed that we will keep telling the story, and those who have calves on the ground and others who are interested will continue to tell the story for us. (p. 10)

For a time, SBL also produced a newsletter about the successes of Simmental. SBL’s belief in the value of Simmental was borne out time after time in performance testing programs, as well as in carcass weights. Several grand and reserve championships were won by 4-H members and by others who participated in showring and other competitive events.

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.)
--------------/
1. Beef Today Yearbook: ’77:84

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

 

1.03: Travers Smith ~ Background

(From Chp. 1 ~ 1966, titled "Foundation Work," in a book begun several years ago by SMSmith to document the early history of SBL and Simmental in North America.)

For many years, Travers Smith of Mountain View, Alberta Canada had sought to improve the performance and profitability of his cattle. The Smith Ranch endeavor, since the days of Travers' grandfather, beginning in 1899, had focused on commercial and purebred Herefords. But like most ranches, the Smith one had suffered its share of down times. The Smith men always considered themselves cattlemen, but they had, in various times of financial crisis turned to sheep and horses to keep afloat. Travers endured his own cycles through sheep and horses (arabians, miniature shetlands, etc.) but always with a few beef cattle on the side, knowing that when things improved, the cattle would become the main focus again.

In the 1950s and early '60s, Travers continued his search for ways to improve his Hereford stock. He felt there had to be increased milk production by mother cows if the daily gain of calves was to be improved, but the divide between beef and milk producing animals had resulted in essentially single purpose animals—either beef or milk, but not both.

Travers was open to innovations and tried crossbreeding and Artificial Insemination (AI) before they were generally accepted practices, but the results, though improved in performance, didn't always have the eye-appeal that the market demanded. Many times it seemed a losing battle.

Travers began looking at purebred animals, with high performance and progeny records to get the improvements he wanted, but the process seemed painfully slow. He believed in the value of record keeping and performance, so he joined the Performance Registry International (PRI) and began putting his own animals to the test. (Some of his Hereford testing was still in process as Simmental began its North American explosion. In 1967-8 and 1968-9 Travers' Hereford Herd Sire produced the highest gaining group of five at the Stanford Progeny Testing station at Stanford, Montana, and at Billings, Montana.)

In the meantime, Travers was always seeking new information wherever he could find it. In the spring of 1965, he received a 2-page report (with letter dated March 29, 1965: reproduced hereafter) from Hobart F. Peters, geneticist with the CDA, Lethbridge Research Branch, detailing crossbreeding results for several breeds. Travers was impressed by the Hereford/Brown Swiss superior performance records and determined to pursue that direction.

In addition, over the winter of 1965-66, he witnessed firsthand in a home-ranch/government-supervised performance test, how a neighbor's ¾ Brown Swiss / ¼ Hereford bull included in the test out-performed his (Travers') good Hereford calves: 878 pounds to 600 pounds at 245 days. Clearly, it was time to make some changes.

(For additional information on performance interests, see posts of May 8 & 10, 2010)

Travers before Simmental ~ Part Two

In Simmental Country, August 1987, Douglas G. Blair of Western Breeders Service wrote:

I used to attend the annual meeting of the Alberta Beef Cattle Performance Test Association and met Travers Smith who was an active member of the organization. Prior to 1967 at the ABCPA meetings he always stressed performance and progeny test information vs. confirmation and showring (p. 106).

With all his new ideas about performance possibilities, Travers began to read and search for the best performing breed. He received information from H.F. Peters, geneticist with the Lethbridge Research Branch of the Canada Department of Agriculture under date of March 29, 1965, showing that in a 1962-63 U.S. experimental test at Miles City, Montana, the Hereford/Brown Swiss cross out-performed in daily gain, every other bred including the newly imported Charolais and Charolais/domestic crossbreds. Travers decided to pursue that course—Hereford/ Brown Swiss crosses. But good cattle cost good money and the banks were often “at the door,” not always impressed with big ideas; so even with all Travers’ dreams, financial realities kept knocking, and knocking loud.

By mid-1965 things got so bad financially that Travers seriously considered selling his ranch. With six children, born in the space of 10 years (1947-1956), he wondered how he was going to help provide for their college needs and their self-funded, 2-year church missions that he hoped they would all serve for their faith.

With the banks not very inclined to more loans, Travers was stymied as to where to turn to finance this venture with high performance cattle and crosses. He had tried so many ways to clear the ranch debt—that inescapable companion to ranching. He had tried cattle. He had tried sheep. He had tried horses. He seemed to be repeating the frustrating cycle of his fathers’—chasing financial security that seemed always just out of reach. Then, in the first week of January 1966, Travers read a 1964 report by that same Hobart F. Peters, geneticist, about Peters' travels in Europe to study animal breeds, including the Simmental; and with that new information, Travers’ Simmental dream began.

----------
Note: Above news clipping is from an unknown source, probably dated sometime in the mid-1960s.

Travers before Simmental ~ Part One

Like his fathers before him, Travers was interested in obtaining the best cattle he could, and also like his fathers, those cattle were mostly Herefords. When Travers learned of a performance-testing program in the United States he considered it a tremendous idea whose time had come—to improve productivity through performance.

From the Beef Today Yearbook ’77, Fenton Webster¹ recalled:

Travers was always interested in performance testing, crossbreeding and AI. He really believed that was the coming thing, at a time when none of those ideas were popular or accepted by the cattlemen. Performance testing, to the cattlemen, was still something the college professors played with, and AI, they felt could never be used on the ranches. (BYT’77:78)

But then Travers was always an innovator. For his herd sire, he went looking for the best performing bull he could find and soon purchased (13 April 1964) a Hereford bull, HH Advance A-326, that was registered with the Performance Registry International as a high performance bull. HH became quite an awesome presence at the ranch in the 1960s.

-----------

1. Fenton Webster was a fellow Mountain View Alberta rancher; became an investor and subsequent shareholder in SBL.