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Report
by Dan Evans,
World Federation Representative
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.
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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