We Bought a Simmental

This past weekend we added another breed to JJB Cattle – a Simmental. I grew up with Simmentals, and my family still raises them under the name High Country Cattle Services. This story begins back in 2001. I was only 16 years old, but I knew I wanted to add a female to my herd that would be an investment. Something that wouldn’t be just a show heifer. She would be a foundation, and a female that would hopefully produce enough revenue to get me through college. (Attending school in the U.S., when then I was paying out-of-state tuition, and each of Canadian dollars were only worth $.60, wasn’t an ideal plan). That year I found Signature 19L.

Interestingly enough, 2001 was also the year that Jon bought Lucky, which became a foundation of his cow herd.

Thankfully, Signature did her job and produced many females that did exactly what they were supposed to do. They were productive cows that made a mark in both the showring and pasture. Over the years I had sold most of my females and ended up with one last Signature daughter, CDY Red Signature 20W. Last year, Dad had mentioned on his trip down to the Iowa State Fair that both her and her heifer calf were looking quite good, and now might be the time to sell. With Jon and I wanting to purchase a farm the following summer we knew that we could use the additional income. We decided to sell both Signature and her heifer calf in the Checkers sale. Again the Signature cow family did exactly what they were supposed to do. Together the pair brought $45,000. Signature was going to help buy the farm.

This fall Jon and I headed back to Canada for my sister’s wedding. While home a red heifer calf quickly caught our eye, and dad mentioned that they would be selling her in Checkers. She was a great-great-grand daughter of Signature. As Jon and I crawled into bed that night we both turned to each other and said we need to buy that heifer.

So last weekend we bought RJY She’s a Sure Sign 42A. We had kept it a secret from our family that we were going to make a run at her. Needless to say they were pretty shocked when JJB Cattle Co. was announced as the online bidder. We are very excited to see Sure Sign this weekend when we get home to Canada for Christmas. We’ll see if the Signature cow family continues to do exactly what they are supposed to do.