By Dan Evans - Vice President & World Federation Representative

Arrival
We arrived at Vienna airport and were met by Karl Zottl, who took us to Baden to register.  At 19.30hrs the bus took us to a Welcome Dinner at Streiterhof, by kind invitation of the Mayor of Baden.  Wine on arrival then into the restaurant for dinner and speeches, we were lucky to be with Romanian and Hungarian representatives who spoke a little English.

Sunday—Committee Meetings & Vienna
I attended the Committee Meeting from 09.00 – 13.00hrs.  Sheila, my wife, went on a full day excursion of Vienna, which by all accounts was very good.  The Meeting was 90% in German, and Karl was instructed to translate for me and Al Grogan from Ireland, who also later presented a paper.  We heard numerous reports, the main points being that there are now twenty members of the ESF, and Austria has eleven regional clubs or associations all employing representatives. The 27th ESF Congress will be in Croatia in September 2007, at Zagreb.

I was invited to introduce myself to the Committee and explain what is happening in the UK.  I told them that I farmed 500 hectares with 160 Simmental cows and was a founder member of our British Society and as a Council member I was now representing the UK.  I explained about ABRI and Breedplan and how well it was working and that it covered eleven countries and eighty Breed Societies, with ten million registrations.  I then informed them about the 2008 World Congress we will be hosting and our current plans.  I invited every country to send one or two Young Breeders to meet our Young Breeders and to join in the Junior Stock Judging at the Royal Show if they were interested; they all seemed to think that this was a great idea if it was possible.

The meeting finished at 13.00hrs, after lunch we had a two hour conducted tour of Vienna.  Finally, on to Vienna Neustift at Fuhrgrasslhuber by invitation of their Mayor.  A wonderful evening was had by all with buffet food, music and eventually a little dancing, by this time we were getting to know more people.

Monday—General Assembly
At 08.30hrs the General Assembly of the ESF commenced at the Congress Casino in Baden. Through the translating system Richard Pichler reported that milk yields had increased in the last 10 years by 50kg, but the Holstein had increased by five times this amount.  Austria had sold 25,000 females last year and exported 13,000 females and 300 embryos, with AI now standing for 94.6% of the breed.

Minister Josef Croll, welcomed the twenty countries and their 200 delegates.  General Secretary of the ESF, George Rohmoser, reported much of the previous day’s meeting information but also announced our invitation to young European members to attend the World Congress in 2008.  Thanks were given to: Dr Alphos Gotts Chalk from the Bavarian Cattle Breeders Association.  Roza Toth a Hungarian breeder.  Dr Gottfried Averdunk, for his merits about ESF breeders.  Pro. Dr. Horst Krdublich, Munich University AI division.  Also the new ESF Website www.esf-esf.info was launched, and European news and information were requested for it. 

During the coffee break the committee voted in a new Vice President from Croatia.  A further four papers were then presented; B Luntz on Performance Testing Requirements in Bavaria.  Stating that in 1993 the Simmental weighed 400kg and in 2004 it increased to 500kg, at their Bull Testing Centre.  He explained that health traits were also very important.

Dr F Fuhrer spoke on Breeding Strategies of the Simmental Federation from a breeding organisation’s point of view. 

Miss Medugard Dolezal of the Bavarian Institute of Nutrition and Genetics spoke about DNA and research project results. 

And finally, Dr Al Grogan of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, giving a very informative talk on the contribution of the Simmental breed to the Irish cattle industry.

Bull Fattening Unit
Following the papers, lunch was taken, then all the other Congress participants visited a large dairy herd and agricultural college.  But a specially organised visit to a beef farm was laid on for Sheila, myself, Al Grogan and Alice Mullan from Ireland.  We were taken by Mathias Kinbergerlu in a mini bus for a 90 minute drive with good translation all the way to Wieselburg.

Here we inspected a bull fattening unit with calves purchased at 160-180kgs, on a whole crop maize and concentrates ration, and at 700-750kgs they are taken to their own abattoir 100km away for two weeks prior to slaughter.  Tests for flavour and tenderness are carried out, and much of the beef is sold through their own shop, plus local restaurants and hotels and some is even exported to Italy, at a value of in excess of 1150 Euros.

Back to the hotel for a quick brush up, and then dinner with light opera music sponsored by the head of the Federal Government of lower Austria, here we met Henning Hanson the Vice President and Jens Nielson President of the Danish Simmental Society, an excellent evening in good company, before returning to the hotel at 11.30pm.

Tuesday—Ried National Show
Tuesday 6th saw an early start.  We departed at 07.30hrs for Ried National Show, arriving at 11.30hrs, with a half hours break on the way, the opening ceremony was in the presence of the Federal President and the Minister of Agriculture.  The Simmentals were paraded in their area groups with flags leading the presentation.  These groups then dispersed into other groups by age, and made a very impressive display with the Simmental band playing in the background.

The cattle were all very much dairy types, well presented and shown in a similar way to the UK.  The stockmen all had dark green, light green, yellow or blue waistcoats on, depending on their regions.  Whilst the cattle all had a large catalogue number stencilled on the rump in black paint.

A good show with a lot of other exhibits and trade stands, a little like the Paris Show but not as large. 

The judging commenced in two groups; the first being seven 4 year old bulls, and secondly nine 2 – 4 year old bulls.  The first class was judged by one judge in front of the main grand stand.  He lined up all the cattle then drew out his selection in order.  The first prize winner went onto a rostrum for photographs.     

The second class then moved up to the main grand stand area with the other judge ready for him to make his selection in the same way.  There were three bull classes and 16 female classes all with nine animals in each.  This was followed by only three beef type classes which were not so impressive.  The winners all then came forward for the championships.

Hohenzell AI Centre
At 17.30hrs we departed to the AI centre at Hohenzell where we were given an impressive display of 30 Simmental bulls.  We sat in grandstands either side of the 10yds by 40yds area of wood chips where the display took place.  Five bulls at a time were paraded with commentary in German about each one.  We also saw a Limousin, Belgian Blue and a half American Brown Swiss, which is very tall like a Chianina, plus a Holstein of the same type.  All bulls had a lot of facts and figures available.  We were joined for the demonstration by 25 Simmental breeders from the Northern Ireland Club.
That evening all 500 participants met in a large marquee for a dinner that was very well organised, with a small brass band and young dancing girls all amateurs but very good entertainment. At 10.30pm we departed for the 1.5hr drive to Ebensee and a new hotel.

Wednesday—Farm Visits
Two tours were available today, one a dairy orientated visit to Pyhra Agricultural College and the Perschlingtal Milch Farm Cooperation. 
The second tour which I attended was beef orientated and included a Beef Production Farm of Herta and Martin Absmanner at Gunsering.  A family farm with 33 hectares of land. They rear 200-250 calves a year and sell some at 180-200kgs to local farmers to fatten with a DLWG of 1050gms.  They fatten 50-70 bulls on maize to 700 kgs and sell them to AMA (Agrarian Marketing Austria) for Guaranteed Free Meat (quality label).Here we had to taste the beef and had a very good lunch at 10.45am.  The Northern Ireland Club also joined us for the day.  After all the thanks and photos we then drove for two hours to Saalbach, unfortunately we were stopped by German police on the way for a spot check and discovered we had three Albanians on the front of the bus with no passports or visas with them. We incurred an hour’s delay while the Police sorted it all out, before letting us on our way, not much fun when the weather is very hot!

A good hour later we arrived at Saalbach/Hinterglemm for a two stage Gondola ride to the top of the mountain, where we were met by the Hartl family and two Austrians blowing very long horns!  It took a good hour to walk down from the top along a shingle road to the farmhouse, via two herds of cows and calves which were more like the British Simmental types, although they still needed a good beefy Simmental bull.  This was the Simmental Polled Breeding Farm of Martin Hartl, at Breitfussbauer. 

Due to the organic cultivation of the land in combination with self-slaughtering of the animals and marketing of the products the enterprise achieves a higher agricultural added value.  The aim of the breeding is to produce mid sized polled Simmentals with good constitution and nicely shaped tight udders.  The suckler cows have to be able to supply their calves with milk during their stay on the alpine pastures 1300-2000m above sea level, without receiving any additional feed. 

The herd is very dual purpose, but the hill farm is also dual purpose as the farm house is a very large restaurant employing at least ten people all winter due to being half way down the ski slope!  A most beautiful location.

Meeting People & Making Friends
Again we had a very relaxed afternoon, eating superb Veal Schnitzels, followed by desserts and of course the obligatory wine or beer, followed by a lot of circulating and talking to the various groups from around Europe, with two young
musicians playing Austrian music on the guitar and accordion making it a very memorable day. We set off down the mountain at 18.00hrs via four minibuses to the village below ready for the 2.5hr coach journey back to our hotel at Ebensee for the closing ceremony of the Congress.

The other group who had been visiting dairy herds were already back and having dinner, but as we had eaten so much food all day we opted for dessert and a beer!  The closing ceremony was a lot of thanks to all and then off to bed ready for an 06.45hr depart back to Vienna for the various flights leaving at 10.00hrs for home. 

Altogether, I would describe it as a very worthwhile trip.  The cattle were a bit disappointing from the beef side, but the dairy element seemed excellent.  The hospitality was tremendous and the help from the people who knew we spoke no German to explain everything was very good.

After arriving home, I feel very ashamed at the state of our towns and countryside.  All the towns we visited were spotless and the farms and grass verges were all kept mowed, no nettles, docks, burdock or ragwort anywhere to be seen. I dread to think what the UK will look like in a few years time.

Future Markets
I think most of the countries present were all looking at the beef side of the breed.  There seemed to be a lot of interest in the Simmental breed from Eastern Europe and the old Soviet block, a market we must keep our eye on.

We met a lot of people who we had met on previous Congress tours, also there was a delegation from Mexico who were looking for beef semen and embryos, I hope to meet them again in Mexico later this year.

All the literature I took with me was displayed at the General Assembly on a large table with all other delegates’ brochures.  I was amazed how quickly our literature disappeared.  Much was printed in German, English and Spanish, a thing we must look into.

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