Report by Dan Evans

I attended the 27th Congress European Simmental Federation, with my wife Sheila in the city of Zagreb, Croatia, from 29th September to 3rd October 2007.

It was very well attended by eighteen member countries and 120 participants and only two from the UK.

The committee meeting on the first day went very well with no major decisions. The secretary, George Rohrmoser, reported that the 18 countries accounted for ten million Simmental cattle of which only half a million were beef type cattle in Croatia. Dr. Bluntz spoke to us explaining the results of a fourteen year test program examining milk production and hereditary deformities. It was noted how all countries have their own pedigree registration rules and was viewed that we must all work together to make them more uniformed. Russia, Norway and Sweden are now “Observation Countries”, waiting to become potential full member countries.

On the second day there was the general assembly and some 250 people were in attendance. After all of the reports the President Richard Pilcher stood down from office following his four year term and Josef Kucera from Czech Republic was voted in as the new President. Plans were drawn up to check the Federations aims, resources, events and activities with a working committee made up of the President and two other countries delegates. The next council meeting was arranged to be in Poland in August 2008 with the ESF congress in Hungary 2009. A large amount of time was spent honouring a hand full of people who had devoted a lot of years work to the breed, and no discussions were held regarding the future direction of the breed. The Croatian speaker explained how in 1990 there were 100,000 breeding cows in the country and now due to the war there is only 20,000. The EU are supporting new farms with units ranging from 20 – 150+ cows being eligible for grants of up to 25% on capital investments, i.e. buildings, machinery silos etc. and the banks offering investors money at 4% fixed rate. Following on from the meetings we went to a specially laid on calf show where thirty five calves were shown by young handlers ranging from four to fourteen years of age.

On the third day we went to Agricultural College KRIZEVCI. 650 students and the AI KRIZEVCI they presented 8 Simmental Bulls and had 2 Holsteins and 1 Brown Swiss which we did not see. We also saw their large herd of eighty AUTOCHTHONOUS breed SLAVONIAN-SYRMIAN cattle, a magnificent sight with their long horns and only three herds left in the country. We went to an exhibition of 100 years Simmental Breeding Records then onto a show with 50 cows to demonstrate the breed. They had OX Roast and a banquet before the judging. We then visited one of the new farms for a quiet visit before driving back to a hotel for dinner, then back to Zagreb.

Slavonian-Syrmian cattle

On the last day we had a 2 hour drive south to the border to visit JELAS, a bull beef fattening unit established in 2005, renovated in 2006 with a capacity of 2000 bulls (250 – 600K) 200 suckler cows with 500 heifers, 8 fattening barns half slated floor, half concrete floor, 8 silage pits of which 5 were empty and 1,000 hectares of land. They were feeding 8kg maize silage, 4kg maize grain 1kg concentrates to achieve 1000gr. This unit was owned by Stephen Fiolic Family, a member of Burcheries Fiolic Ltd., I think a disaster waiting to happen, I hope I am wrong. The area was not farmed well and they informed us that there were still a lot of mine fields in existence in the area.

Then on to another bull fattening unit Kula Farm owned by Kutjevo Ltd. And established in 1968, and extended in 1983, fattening 2500 bulls in 4 barns on slatted floor, slurry flowed into a very large lagoon, 7 hectares of building, 5200 hectares of land cropping whole crop maize and combinable maize, feeding 6.5kg maize silage, 5.5 maize grain, 1.2 kg concentrate, 1.5kg hay or straw achieving 1150gr. The corn grain was coming in from fields, hammer milled with water to stop dust then stored in silage clamps, as the whole crop would have been. It looked a very successful unit.

We then went to Vineyard Kutjevo for a late lunch at the top of a valley before being taken to the wine cellars by 10 pair of horse drawn floats, 40 of us at a time. We eventually left at 7.30pm instead of 5pm for a 2 hour drive back to Zagreb for the closing ceremony arriving 11/2 hours late.

The closing ceremony consisted of a few speeches and eventually more food, by 11pm a lot had drifted off to bed after saying goodbye.

To summarise it was very worth while congress. The hospitality and food was unreal with much too much of it. The drink was always plentiful. The countryside varied from very poor, with nothing growing, to very fertile, and mostly maize growing and looking well. At every venue there would be small musical groups of 4/5 or even full bands with dancing girls. We were entertained by 14 groups or bands, 6 dance groups and 5 groups singing.

All Croatians thanked us for coming to see the cattle and country, they are all very proud. A large number of the European contingency expressed how much they were looking forward to the world congress next year in UK.

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