New Simmental sire available for BeefLink farmers

Asda has launched a new Simmental bull to BeefLink farmers, with Omorga Samson, owned by Perthshire pedigree and commercial producer Adrian Ivory, Strathisla Farms, Meigle now part of the line up.

Samson was purchased in February 2007 for 22,000gns, a joint breed record and has some of the breed’s best genetics with his EBVs making him ideally suitable for breeding top quality suckler replacements. He has a calving value of +3.1, a gestation length of -1.3, a 600-day weight figure that ranks him in the top 5% of the breed, a milk figure of +7 that ranks him in the top 10% for the breed and a self-replacing index of +36 that ranks him in the top 5% of the breed.

Not only are Samson’s performance figures ideally suited to produce quality suckler replacements, his figures as a terminal sire mean he will equally produce cattle in line with processor specifications. His eye muscle area figure of +4 ranks him in the top 4% of the breed, while his retail yield index ranks him in the top 1% of the breed.

And these sorts of performance figures are what beef producers should be looking for which is why Samson was singled out, says Asda’s Pearce Hughes. “Samson is one of the best Simmental bulls I have ever seen. He is easy calving, making him suitable on heifers and has the added bonus of being able to produce good carcass cattle as well.

“Sons of Samson have sold up to 7000gns at public auction and both pedigree and commercial females within the Strathisla herd are performing well,” adds Mr Pearce. “Daily liveweight gain on commercial cattle sired by him average 1.8kg a day and cattle have graded between U and E grades.”

Semen is available priced at £7.50 a straw, which is a 75% discount for Asda BeefLink producers.