The Twells herd of Dairy Shorthorns at Snetterton, Norfolk is adding value to half its calves by crossing the cows to either a Simmental or South Devon bull.

Simmental putting flesh and conformation into the Dairy Shorthorns for a premium market

For herd owner, Tim Wyatt, and his family this gives ‘two strings to the beef bow’. Cross-bred heifers are sold privately as bulling heifers into the local suckler replacement market; while the steers are kept until the second BSP payment is received and their beef is marketed direct to the consumer from the farm.

The Wyatt family run a diverse business with a large haulage firm also taking a lot of time and management to operate. However, such customer experience has certainly been an advantage in marketing the beef. Tim Wyatt believes that "without a great deal of effort they are increasing the sales of well hung, mature beef."

The steers are slaughtered at 5-600 kgs liveweight and cattle are available all year round as this reflects the dairy herd calving pattern. Summer grazing is on 130 acres of permanent pasture that is managed under a Countryside Stewardship scheme, and the winter diet is based on parsnips not suitable for the supermarket trade, barley straw, plus 2 kgs of protein concentrate per head per day.

Simmental X Shorthorn heifers destined for the East Anglian suckler replacement market

For the Wyatt family the Simmental cross Shorthorn is a sought-after breeding heifer and they are cultivating its successful use in a double suckling unit. For the future they definitely intend to stick with the Simmental cross because the animals perform so well on the limited resources of permanent pasture and arable by-products. Another key benefit for the Simmentals is their very high health status.

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