Wroxall Simmentals Feature Article in Simmental Review 2024

The Warwickshire based Wroxall herd was established back in the late 1960’s. Today it is one of the original Simmental herds still breeding and trading livestock. Wroxall spans four generations of the Evans family – Cecil, Dan, Rob and Josh.

“Simmental is the dual-purpose breed that ticks all the boxes and it is placing us ahead of many cattlemen in these uncertain times,” says Rob Evans.

“After more than half a century of breeding experience, we know that the Simmental cow has both the frame and ability to naturally breed and rear a strong calf, she will produce an abundance of milk off fairly ordinary forage, her calf will grow to half her body weight - 400kgs or more at weaning without any supplementary feed, and then go on to finish off a good forage diet with little or no hard feed cost.

“With the entire agricultural industry venturing into unchartered territory - the current BPS is coming to an end in England in 2027, the uncertainty over Government’s new support system with payments to provide public goods, and with purse strings being generally tightened up even more than ever, we feel that with a shed full of Simmentals we are in a much stronger position than some fellow cattle breeders.”

The Evans family is proud to supply bulls that continually meet demand. “We are selling over twenty head a year and more than 90% of sales are at the farm gate to repeat customers mainly based in the Midlands and North Wales who have gone through the wheel; they’ve converted from dairying to farming sucklers and are grading up their dairy cows to pure Simmental status.

“We believe it’s very important to listen to these producers, we stick behind them and try to keep ahead of the curve.  We consistently get asked for light coloured bulls with good hindquarters and easy fleshing, together with easy calving figures,” he says.

“And with labour becoming increasingly scarce and the fact we’re all getting longer in the tooth, these commercial men appreciate the Simmental’s docile temperament and they like the fact we don’t push our bulls – they’re naturally reared and don’t melt away after they leave Wroxall. They are also seeking the opportunity to invest in a polled bull. We receive more and more requests for homozygous polled bulls and this is the gene we are currently trying to perfect with our latest stud bull, Coose Pat PP who he is ticking all the boxes.”

Rob continues: “Not wanting to lose length and shape, selecting the correct polled genetics has not been as straight forward as I had hoped for. However, more than 60% of the breeding herd is now polled and over 88% of the progeny coming through are polled.

In addition to introducing Coose Pat PP, new bloodlines have been recently sourced from Canada, Denmark and Southern Ireland. Stud bull selection has always been for naturally well fleshed polled genetics, showing good growth for age with structural soundness. Any females retained in the herd are all selected for large pelvic areas for age, structural soundness with emphasis on good feet, udder and teat placement and size – traits that are extremely important for ease of management.

Wroxall Simmentals: the herd’s history and management

In the late 1960’s Rob’s father, Dan was asked to be a part of the original buying commission sent over to Switzerland by the British Government to source Simmental genetics from their native country and return them to the UK. Along with Dan’s father, Cecil they then started to cross the newly imported Simmental over their highly prized Hereford herd back at home in Wroxall. Raising many an eyebrow in the process, they started the grading-up process which eventually ended up with the pure-bred pedigree herd they run today.

Twenty years on and Dan imported the first polled Simmental into the UK from North America in partnership with Finley McGowan. This was the start of the demand for polled Simmental. During that period, the Evans family also set up the first annual on farm production sale - The Premier Production Sale. Incorporating likeminded hand-picked breeders from across England to exhibit top quality bloodlines at this annual event, it ran for some 11 years before new legislation prohibited multi-exhibitor on farm sales.

The herd had always been based on the tenanted farm at Wroxall, where the family had been for over 98 years; Rob and his wife, Sam are the third generation of the Evans family to run the farm. The cow herd had now swelled to over 200 head, with the tail end of the herd put to a British Blue bull and all young stock finished around 14 months of age and 650kgs liveweight.  This was up until 2023 when the landlord announced he wanted a large proportion of the farmland back to form a solar farm project leaving the remainder of the farm unviable. The Evans family decided to move their beloved herd to their own farm seven miles away; Kington Grange Farm at Claverdon is a much smaller acreage which subsequently forced a reduction sale to leave a more manageable 60 cows.   

The herd is split spring and autumn calving; the spring calve in February and March and the autumn, September and October. This policy enables the Evans to utilise stud bulls and buildings and offer saleable stock all year round. All cows are housed a month prior to calving to manage feed intake and subsequently ease the calving process. It also allows paddocks to be rested mid-summer and a good flush of grass to greet the freshly calved cows to encourage them back into cycle for when the stud bull is re-introduced in November.

The weaned heifers are fed a home-grown ration of maize silage and grass silage, while the bulls are fed just maize silage and balancer. The balancer is made up of barley and white beans from the farms arable enterprise combined with purchased sugar beet and minerals. All youngstock are summer grazed to encourage natural growth and locomotion.

The bulls are weighed monthly to monitor and manage performance. All young stock is scanned and recorded under the ABRI system. The females’ pelvic areas are measured to assist management decisions. Any bulls that don’t cut the mustard are sold around 14 months of age on the deadweight system, killing out around 420kgs+ and achieving U grades. Any heifers not retained as replacements are sold for breeding or as hi health recipients.

Rob and Sam’s son Josh is responsible for social media and the showing side of the business. He enjoys exhibiting at as many local shows as he can, taking the lead on show selection and preparation. “Josh is on his second year of a world tour, currently working in New Zealand’s South Island to broaden his horizons. We’re very pleased that he’s doing this, however we are very much looking forward to his return,” says Rob.

With the next generation keen to continue the Wroxall legacy, and the strong position the Simmental breed currently find itself, the Evans family business looks set for a bright future.