Simmental Cattle

a breed of cattle raised for milk and meat. The Simmental breed was originally developed in Switzerland; it was imported into many countries because of its high productivity and adaptability. The prolonged grading-up of local cows with Simmental bulls imported from Switzerland led to the creation of such related breeds as the Fleckvieh in Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany, the Montbéli-ard in France, and the Magyartarka in Hungary. Simmentals were imported into Russia in the second half of the 19th century; the bulls were mated with cows of a number of local breeds, including the Gray Ukrainian, Poles’e, Kalmyk, and Kazakh.

Simmental cattle are a mottled pale yellow or, less commonly, a mottled red. The area around the nostrils is pink, and the horns and hooves are a light waxy color. The breed includes several types: dairy, dairy-beef, and beef-dairy.

Simmental bulls weigh 800-1,100 kg, and cows 550-650 kg. The average milk yield per cow is 3,500–4,000 kg (on the best cattle farms, 5,000 kg); the record yield is 14,430 kg. The fat content of the milk is 3.8-3.9 percent (maximum, 6.08 percent). The meat is of satisfactory quality. The dressed percentage is about 60.

The Simmental breed is one of the most widespread cattle breeds in the world. In the USSR it is systematically used to improve cattle in the central chernozem regions, the Lower Volga region, the southern Urals, Western and Eastern Siberia, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR, the Kazakh SSR, and the western parts of the RSFSR.