January 2024 Simmental E-News

REGISTRY

THE HERD LETTER FOR 2024 IS "M"

Annual membership and administration fees were billed on January 2, 2024. If you do not have a credit card on file at CSA, payment is due upon receipt of invoice. CSA accepts credit cards, cheques, cash and e-transfers. Send your e-transfer to Canadian Simmental Association, at bjudd@simmental.com. Include your CSA account number and security answer in e-transfer, or by separate email to bjudd@simmental.com

CSA Membership Update

The Canadian Simmental Association has now received Government approval of our 2022 and 2023 bylaw changes. This includes approval for changes to our upgrade table, that were voted on and approved by the CSA membership, and now provides equality in the upgrading process between male and female Simmental animals. Please refer to www.simmental.com for the new CSA bylaws and current upgrade table. The CSA will also be adding a CSA director from British Columbia via a vote by the CSA membership.

The approved by-law changes, including the revised upgrade table, take effect on animals born on or after January 1, 2024. This will not change the fraction of animals born prior to then. It is also important to note that there still are differences between the Canadian and American upgrade tables due to the U.S. process of rounding up some fractions. An American 7/8 is not necessarily a 7/8 in Canada. It is important to recognize that difference.

Please contact the CSA office cansim@simmental.com or CSA General Manager Bruce Holmquist at bholmquist@simmental.com or any CSA director with any questions you may have.

2024 World Simmental Fleckvieh Congress Sponsors

Platinum Level Sponsor

Zoetis

Gold Level Sponsor

American Simmental Association & International Genetic Solutions

Bohrson Marketing

Glacier Media

Silver Level Sponsor

Clearwater Simmentals

Bronze Level Sponsor

Anchor D Simmentals Ltd.

Livestock Identification Services

Mader Ranches

Trouw Nutrition

Friend

Semex

Sponsorship Opportunities are available, please contact the office or Stacy Price for more information.

sprice@simmental.com

BREED IMPROVEMENT

Genetic Evaluation Update

The CSA genetic evaluation conducted by IGS has recently implemented some changes. These changes primarily impact growth and carcass traits and include changes to make the evaluation run more efficiently (The IGS evaluation is the largest beef cattle evaluation in the world). New advances also include updates to the handling of external EPD and across breed adjustment factors. Members may see some slight changes to EPD on individual animals, however the ranking of animals within the population is relatively unchanged by the recent updates. CSA in partnership with IGS continue to work to improve the genetic evaluation models to provide members and their customers with the most cutting-edge beef cattle evaluation in the world.