ORIGINS:
The evolutionary development of the Simbra ’s parent-breeds differs greatly.  The Simmental from central Europe, adapted to long cold winters and used for both milk and beef.  Zebu cattle, the genetic pool from which the Brahman breed derived, originate in India in an environment of heat, humidity, diseases and parasites.

Simmental semen was imported for the first time into the USA in the 60’s, and breeders in Texas used it on the Brahman cattle. The result and the performance of the half-blood cross was without parallel. 

Most of our animals are 5/8 Simmentaler, 3/8 Brahman.  We believe this to be the best combination in terms of adaptation and total performance.

We do not chase generations and find that bringing new 50 -50 animals into our programme is critical for our stud. One of the best ways to get to a 5/8, 3/8 combination is to use a F1 (50-50) bull on a F1 (50-50) cow and then to cross that with a Simmentaler again (Not good as it is a F1 in the South African system). This we have found produce the best qulity base animals.

Fertiltiy and breeding values are the only selection criteria in our herd and we anticipate that DNA testing and profiling will be more important in the future. Research around the gene map of cows are extremely interesting and will influence beef production in the near future.

  http://www.csiro.au/science/bovine-genome-decoded.html#2
  http://www.biomedcentral.com/series/bovine
 http://genomes.arc.georgetown.edu/bovine/

We believe in COW POWER, our cows’ performance, phenotype and pedigree insure that their PROFIT POTENTIAL is unlimited. We have some of the best females in the business.

We are using the following STUD BULLS at the moment:

* Belleombre Lew - DDD016C
Lew is one of the first bulls we bought; he is MR Reliable with fantastic breeding values - 400 days (+35) and 600 days (+42). Recommended for mature cows.

* KAMAB - DM01188
This is the bull we are using on our Heifers – birth weight (-0,7) 400 days (+31) and 600 days (+41). The bull is dark red and of moderate frame.

* Grey Bull - CHD01188B
This bull is unreal – Marbling, tenderness and feed efficiency is the name of the game – 2006 Vryburg reserve junior champ.

Red Bull - CHD0536B
Polled dark red with a white blaze, +5 milk and fantastic on heifers.

Sauve (smooth one) - LMC Sauve 5T/53
Really smooth bull, polled, cherry red and an unbelievable pedigree WATCH THIS SPACE!

If you do not see our mark it is not from Expectra Stud

Bud and Lupita Wentz - Bud was a founding member
of the Simbrah breed in the USA. Introduced the
concept of 5/8 Simmental, 3/8 Brahman.