VBAR Simmentals is a small Simmental operation with heavy emphasis on quality Fleckvieh strains German, South African, and blended North American.

We started out with the Simmental influence back in 1979 and have been involved with the breed since then.  Through Dr. Hugh Karstetter, I became interested in the Sir Arnold G809 and Bold Leader blood lines.

I raised a cow out of a PollFleck son who had 4 generations of bulls I owned in her and I have always held her in my mind as a prototype of what a cow should be, her name was VBAR Maybelline.  She was long and wide, polled, a good milker, docile, moderate framed, good looking and always calved on time.  She always raised one of the best calves each year.  She remains my cow to compare to, and I still have generations of progeny tracing back to Maybelline.  We thought we were going to move to Colorado and get out of the cattle business, when people heard about it they kept coming by the farm and buying cows until I had 3 left (3 of the best I might add).

We wound up moving to NW Oklahoma to take care of our parents, so I started rebuilding the herd. Since I was interested in Fleckvieh and wanted to raise Simmentals that look like Simmentals, I started hunting for a Fleckvieh bull.  My first full Fleckvieh bull came from Buzzard Hollow Ranch, and he was named BHR Barrie.  Since most of my cows were not registered, I used him to build a great set of half blood cows that were also at least half Fleckvieh.

I chose Barrie for frame moderation, decent growth numbers, a higher than 3 IMF rating, acceptable calving ease, goggle eyed and maternal improvement EPD’S.  I have always felt that selecting for a single trait can lead to loss of quality in the other genetic traits.  I wanted balance, and Barrie has proved he can improve several traits at once.  Barrie thru his sire is half South African with foundation genetics from Bantu and Lady Tugela.  His German half comes from DDD Broadway and  HVR Ice Princess (Romulous/Hacks Fraulein).

For the ¾ blood layer of genetics, I wanted to add the BHR Three Sixes influence.  I purchased BHR Barnaby , a fullblood full Fleckvieh, who was double bred Three Sixes and also had Doorn, Zulu, Ms Pret-lu, Lady Pretoria, Draco, and Hacks Fraulein in his pedigree.  With those genetics he had to be good, and he was. He added style while maintaining length and width, and just being the right combination of genetics to use on Barrie daughters.The Barrie x Barnaby daughters are developing into a great set of cows.

Up to this time I had focused on building the genetic base and did not focus on convenience traits (e.g. color and polled).  I had also been purchasing heifers and cows from Buzzard Hollow to speed up the improvement in my herd and shift to Fleckvieh.  I consider each animal we get from Buzzard Hollow as a genetic warehouse that I can use to infuse genes I could not afford any other way.  Fred Shuetze at Buzzard Hollow has given me great guidance and has shared knowledge to educate me on the bloodlines and traits of the Fleckvieh cattle.

With the ¾ layer set by Barnaby on Barrie daughters, it was time to add some of the convenience traits while still improving the base.  I purchased a bull named GCRF Houston who was sired by DDD Sargent Rote on BHR Lady Susi a great foundation cow.  Lady Susi  is a Kykso Hadau cross on Congosim Susi.  Houston is polled, moderate framed and improves all of the traits I want to keep improving.  His first set of calves are something to see.  He is a very docile  full blood bull.

BHR Carlisle is the latest addition to our herd sire battery.  He is being used in the spring 2017 season.  He is a son of King of the Jungle and is out of a Real Deal daughter.  THis combination brings 3 new bloodlines (Haxold, Jocelyn, and Real Deal, and Ashante the flush mate to Three Sixes.  Carlisle had a 77 pound birthweight and very good growth numbers.  Carlisle will enhance the genetics based on Barrie, Houston, and Barnaby.  Carlisle is long deep and wide, just like I want a bull.  He is polled/scurred and a Full Fleckvieh Fullblood that is 3/4 South African and 1/4 German.

The cows I have added from Buzzard Hollow include 2 Three Sixes daughters one is Tribella a ¾ Simmental ¼ Red Angus cow that is developing into one of our top cows with a stunning Houston calf by her side this year. BHR Quanda is a Three Sixes daughter out of a very good looking Doorn/Lady Susi cow.  We have cows by Dustin, Sir Dillan, Warrick, Oakes, and Gerik.  All of the purchased cows as well as the home grown cows are a pleasure to work with, they are docile, good looking goggle eyed red or black white faced cows.  Many of them are starting to look alike and follow the pattern of the model cow I talked about earlier.  The cows have to be docile, calve on time and be easy fleshing to stay in the herd, after those traits we consider bloodlines, phenotype, carcass traits and maternal traits.  We feed out a few steers each year to check the carcass improvement which has been steadily improving according to my freezer beef customers.

CCLC Cowboy Cut was added to our bull battery in April of 2018.  He is in the top 10% of the breed for calving ease and top 15% for birthweight.  He has excellent carcass EPD’s with the highest IMF to date in our herd.  He has an exceptional phenotype, good legs and feet, good length and depth.  Being homozygous polled and black, his calves out of our great Fleckvieh cow herd will be black, polled and should come easy.  With very acceptable growth Cowboy sets a new direction for our program to produce Fleckvieh influenced black cattle.  We are excited about his future potential.  He is 1/2 Simmental and 1/2 Angus and will produce 3/4 x 1/4 calves out of our Flecks.

Thanks for your interest,

Dick and Burneta

Check out Burneta’s website to see some great sculptures she has done. eaglechiefstudios.com