Brazil will host the Simmental Breed Conference of the Americas in 2023

Brazil will host the Simmental Breed Congress of the Americas, scheduled for December 2023.

The confirmation occurred during the World Simmental Breed Congress, which ended on Thursday, September 8, in Vienna, Austria, after ten days of activities. The congress gathered representatives from 32 countries.

“We had the support of other countries in the Americas, such as Mexico and Colombia,” says Mário Aguiar Neto, a breeder on the board of the Brazilian association.

“We have already defined that it will be in Avaré (São Paulo), an important date because it marks the 60 years of the Simmental association in Brazil.”

Since its foundation, about 400,000 purebred cattle and their crossbreeds that can be registered (Simbrasil, Simangus, and Simlandês) have already been registered in Brazil.

In this case, respectively crosses with Zebu, Angus, and Dutch. In last year’s national show, 500 animals from nine states (Paraíba, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Federal District, São Paulo, Espírito Santo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul) participated.

Although Austria is a small country with a little over 83,000 km2, it is important for the genetic work it does with the Simmental breed, which is of Swiss origin.

The country has 1.4 million cattle of the breed, a volume that represents the largest percentage of Simmental cattle (fleckvieh, in the original term) in the world, with about 80%.

The Brazilian territory is equivalent to 102 Austrias, with a herd of over 200 million animals. Precisely because of this, Brazil is seen as a dream partner.

“With the genomic selection, we have a modern tool for cattle breeding at our disposal. Through co-breeding programs, genetic progress is the logical consequence,” says Sebastian Auernig, president of the Austrian association and the world congress.

“We have a great opportunity to keep high-quality breeding in the hands of breeders in the future, able to implement a global breeding strategy. That is only possible with systematic breeding work and associated modern techniques.”

Auernig refers to the global challenge for livestock breeding to show sustainable ways of producing meat and milk while mitigating and reducing climate impacts.

The Netherlands, for example, has intensified the use of Simmental sires in Holstein-Friesian cows, popularly known as Dutch cattle, in search of animals for meat production.

Males and females that are less productive in milk or taken out of production go to fattening in search of carcass yield.

The congress, which occurs every two years, had a thematic discussion and a tour of farms and genetic companies.

Aguiar Neto says he has participated in about ten world congresses in countries like the United States, Poland, Colombia, Mexico, and Ireland. In Austria, he was about two decades ago visiting herds.

“I saw a considerable evolution. [The Austrians] indeed have a very different type of cattle from ours, and very different breeding systems, with dual-purpose cattle in stables, with very high milk production,” says Aguiar Neto.

“We have separate cattle breeding for meat on pasture and milk on pasture.”

In Austria, there are 14,200 Simmental breeding farms registered in herd books, where there are 310,000 breeding cows.

Last year, from this total, 273,000 were for milk production and made an average of 7,742 kg of milk per lactation, with 4.17% fat and 3.44% protein, which corresponds to high-quality milk.

For the breeder, who has Simmental in Brazil with a focus on meat production, the work of dual-purpose genetics, coming from intensive cattle breeding and the use of small spaces, shows the need to have productive farms.

“The congresses are excellent for us to exchange information,” says Aguiar Neto, who spoke with breeders from various countries about the genetic adaptation of the Simmental in Brazil.

This breed targets the Nelore for the so-called industrial crossbreeding with the main market.

“We are negotiating the sale of embryos to Costa Rica. The breeders from Peru were interested in our work, and the ones from Colombia, who already knew us, have been looking for us. We have a Simmental that is very adapted to the tropical climate.”

The owner of the Mamado Simmental brand (Aguiar Neto’s nickname), who has been a cattle breeder in Avaré since 1987 and a Simmental breeder for genetic selection since 20004, will promote his first own auction in early October.

In Austria, the congress members visited several farms in the country’s northern region, in summer grazing areas, in addition to genetics centers and animal export facilities, the FIH (Fleckvieh of Innviertel and Hausruckviertel), which belongs to the country’s breeders association.

“We visited one of the largest farms in Austria, with about 360 females, plus 180 between heifers and pregnant cows, stabled 100% of the time, with an average production of 9,000 kg of milk,” says Aguiar Neto. “More than production, we saw healthy and very productive animals.” For him, a school to be replicated.

With information from Forbes