By Dan Evans - Vice President & World Federation Representative

Arrival
We (Sheila my wife, and I) were met at the airport by Cecilia Castillo and Saul Tijerina, both of whom worked for the Mexican Simmental Society in Monterrey. It was so nice to be met personally as we had been travelling some 20 hours and to be taken to the Crown Plaza Hotel, which was to be our headquarters for the next nine days.

Grand Opening Ceremony
Delegates drifted in over the next two days, including Alan Pepper from Northern Ireland and Danie Marais from New Zealand, who we knew well. Friday, at 5.00pm we went to the Showground for the Grand Opening Ceremony by the Governor of Jalisco State and the Minister of Agriculture for Mexico. Supper followed with all the exhibitors, whilst a large Mariachi band, consisting of three guitars, four violins and three brass players, along with singers and dancers entertained us all night.

Saturday, I met Andrias Biglar, World Congress Secretary, and Benz Brand together with his wife Annelies from Switzerland. That evening the congress was officially opened and we were all made very welcome by David Galvin the Mexican Simmental President.

Sunday, at 7.30hrs we were off for a three and a half hour drive to the San Bernardo Ranch, Guanajuato, who had imported 20 cows and a bull from Canada five years previously. The cattle were mostly big, long and up off the ground types. He only had a small hectorage and felt honoured to see us all, he also had a shoe business in town. We moved on to Lagos de Moreno, to La Trinadad Ranch of Ignacia Perez Aguilar, where Ignacia had over 200 cows on very harsh country, with not very much food, except the maize that was fed daily. He had 11 bulls at the show and sold them all before the show actually started. He also had a bunch of forty 12-14 month old bulls on the ranch which he said he would sell all at home over the next month.

The third ranch Los Fresnos Ranch, again was on very harsh country, we were met by the owner Enrique Candiani Segura and his son. We ate spicy bread rolls for lunch and then walked to see the cattle which were a very mixed bunch, of all ages. Some heifers should have been weaned, but I suppose they don’t come into season as the feed is so dry. He explained that they had had good rain, the pastures were all very green and we should see it in two months time!! I also met MVZ Ma Soledad Garcia Castaneda, a vet, who is coming to the UK and Germany later in the year; she is looking for embryos to take back.

Our fourth ranch that day was the Santa Maria Ranch belonging to Mr Ramirez. This was a complete change to the others – the soil was very red and rich, the grass was knee high and lush. He had an outstanding herd of cattle, consisting of 30 cows he had purchased recently, 15 yearling heifers which were 1/8 Red Angus 7/8 Simmental, and two outstanding pedigree dark red bulls. The Charolais herd he had did not look as impressive.

Delegates enjoy the hospitality

Next port of call was the local village where Mr Romirez’ family owned a function hall. We had a superb supper with the usual Mexican Mariachi group playing and singing in the background, accompanied by Saul Tijerina and Ignacio Aquilar the owner of the Trinadad Ranch, who both had very good voices. We got back to the hotel at 11.30pm after a very interesting and long day, meeting a lot of people.

WSFF Council Meeting
Monday 8.00am was the first day of the WSFF Council Meetings, all of which I attended and was made most welcome. The first meeting was the Budget and Members Sub-Committee which was chaired by Dr Hugo Valentin from Italy, who had little to report.

The second meeting was on Breed Publicity and Promotion with the chairman Dr Josef Kucera, from the Czech Republic. There were reports from various countries and also a long discussion re the Young Breeders, which I had invited in Austria. Again, I requested all the World delegates to send one or two young breeders to our World Congress in 2008, in order to meet up with other young breeders and to get involved with our Junior Stock Judging at the Royal Show. It was received exceptionally well and when we heard that Canada was doing exactly the same in 2006, it was agreed that 3,000 US dollars would be put towards this project by the WSFF – Good News!

The third meeting was Technical, chaired by Dr Georg Rohrmoser from Germany. It was suggested that the Congress required more beef research speakers like Al Grogan from Ireland, with more time for questions and discussion. Peter Speers from Australia gave a good paper on Polled Registration Rules and suggested all countries discuss uniform rules at the next World Congress.

Beef Production Meeting
Peter Speers chaired the Beef Production meeting, discussing beef research projects (running and new). I reported on the Maize Trials that had been concluded at the Reading University where they had fed various groups on different rations, then the finished animals went to Bristol University for analysing. The report we had from Reading was very lengthy and in conjunction with the Maize Growers Association we are getting a condensed version and when received, I will send it to Andrias Bigler. A discussion also followed on Tenderness and Marbling Genes.

The last meeting for the day was Simbrah, chaired by Fred Schuetze from USA, due to Peter Massmann’s absence. He reported that 49,000 Simbrah and 35,000 Simmentals are registered in Mexico.

Non meeting delegates meanwhile enjoyed a “heart of the city” tour and a fabulous meal, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

More Council Meetings
Tuesday 11th October saw a Council Meeting. The President Franz Sturzer was Chairman and Andrias Bigler, the Secretary, translated throughout. Reports were received from the Chairmen of the previous day’s meetings, and the 17 countries in attendance. Various members were elected to the different committees, and I was elected to the Beef Production Sub-Committee and the Technical Committee.

I reported on the British World Congress 2008 outlining our proposed programme, which prompted various questions and comments. The main concern being that it was perhaps too long for European members, and needed to be broken up, enabling delegates to join the Congress at different stages.

After a coffee break Bruce Holmquist and Alana Lunn gave a very good progress report on the Canadian World Congress in 2006. It was also announced that the next WSFF Council Meeting would be held in June 2007 in the Czech Republic.

After all the meetings we were taken to Rancho Carmelitay, one hour from Guadalajara, where we were met by Mr Salvador Romero, who had been breeding Simmentals for five years.

His herd of 226 cows was a good bunch with some outstanding cows in good working order. Some of the calves were short of milk and probably trace elements or copper as they and some of the cows were starey coated.

We then moved to a marquee on the lawn where we were entertained by a very smart band for the rest of the afternoon and evening. The traditional Mexican speciality food served was outstanding.

Conference
Wednesday 12th October saw us off to the Showground for a Conference, where we had four papers. Josef Kucera from the Czech Republic, gave us facts and figures regarding European farms. 120,000 farms had 12 million animals, with herd sizes ranging from 3 – 220. He gave comparisons of Simmental and Holstein milk production.

He then concluded his talk with a saying “when riding a dead horse get off”!! I think this really meant that due to increasing problems in some dairy herds, the demand for dual purpose genetic is growing in Central Europe and some other countries as well.

Peter Speers from Australia gave a very good paper “Increasing worldwide Beef Profits with Simmental”, the biggest growth being from developing countries.

Alana Lunn from Canada gave a talk on “Know your production and know your Market”. With five million cows, some 200,000 bulls are required and with currently 30,000 Simmental cows there is a lot of room for growth.

The last paper from Moises Montana, Bermudez, Brazil was very hard to understand, as it was translated into broken English.

Tequila Distillery
Next we went to a Tequila distillery, the oldest in the area, where we were shown the tequila plant and how it is processed and distilled

Thursday 8.15am and off to the Show. We saw all the Simmental female judging with some exceptional females, very milky and good locomotion. A two hour lunch break in the Rodeo area followed, where we enjoyed the first steak of the trip. I met Ivan Ramirez from the Trade & lnvestment Office, Agriculture & Livestock, who was very helpful.

We only saw part of the Bull judging as we had to leave at 5.30pm in order to attend a dinner at El Refugio at Tlaquepaque. Here they had spared no expense with a Band, Dancer and three Clowns, a very enjoyable evening.

Friday we returned to the showground for an appointment with Mvz Ma Soledad Garcia Castaneda, the vet, at 2.00pm, who never turned up! After changing we went to the final Award Winners Dinner, sponsored by the Government of Jalisco, at the Cabanas Cultural Institute, a very old building with a large marquee in the courtyard. Dinner was very late as the Simbrah judging had not finished until 8.30pm. It was a very smart Silver-Service function of traditional Mexican food, but before the prize giving there was a tremendous storm, which lasted over an hour. Most of the classes received a very nice plaque with a porcelain animal on it, Mr Chapa, won about 14 of these.

Auction
Saturday was a day of farewells, as many delegates were moving on. The only thing we missed was the auction of about 30 cattle, embryos and some semen. I have since heard the sale prices ranged from £1200 to £2200.

The Congress was very well organised and interesting, we made a lot of new contacts and renewed some old ones! I hope that all of them will be here in 2008.

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