My family has raised registered Simmental cattle for breeding stock (or seed stock) for over 30 years. During my involvement with the business I’ve grown used to answering all sorts of questions from my non-ag friends and curious on-lookers at fairs. Anything from “how big will it get?” to “why does that one have a hump on it’s neck?” I even had one kid who had never seen a cow before ask me “what type of dog is that?” as he walked past a young calf in Milwaukee at the Wisconsin State Fair. His eyes got big and he immediately ran off saying he had to tell his friends what he found once he realized it was a cow.

The questions came up again a couple weekends ago when my brother and I picked up two purebred Simmental heifers we had purchased earlier this fall. The heifers will be for Sissy and Potato Boy to work with as 4-H projects before we add them to the herd with the other cows we own. When asked what I had done that weekend one of the same old questions popped up again: “Are you going to eat them?”

I’ve explained it many times before, but Crystal of Crystal.Cattle recently did an excellent job of explaining the difference between purebred and commercial cattle on her blog so I thought I’d share the link here for anyone who’d like a refresher course.

As it applies to us, you just need to substitute Simmental for Hereford in her article.