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Key Simmentals is the trading name
for G D Key and Son, farmers now in their third generation,
of Abbey Farm, Mundham. |
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The Key Simmentals herd is managed
by John Key with his son Simon and they focus on producing high
quality award-winning Simmental sires. |
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All Key Simmentals cattle are
registered with The British Simmental Cattle Society and the
registration details are available to view on the Society's online
database. Just click the 
icon, when you see it.
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Key Simmentals comply with and are
certified by the relevant food producer authorities, including FABBL,
CMI and the Food Standards Council.
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Over the last, nearly 30, years Key Simmentals have
won numerous awards. One highly prestigious award was
the South East Simmental Group large herd competition in 2005.
We won first prize at the Royal
Norfolk Show with Key Tiddlywink M068486 in 2007. |
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Our prize
sire, Hollingwood Tom M066580, won first at Royal Show 2007,
first at Bakewell Show 2007 and first at Lincoln Show 2007. |
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After dealing with commercial cattle from the age of 16,
in 1980 John decided to breed pedigree Simmental cattle. We started the herd
off by purchasing two Simmental heifers from Mr Norman Smith, of the
Fressingfield Herd, for £600. |
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Over the next few years the herd was
steadily increased through going to sales and
shows, always coming home with a couple of additions! |
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The herd really started to improve when
we purchased a cow named Laird Mary F007209, a bargain at
£850. We flushed her three times and had great success. From
then on nearly all the best prodigy came from Laird Mary. |
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We then artificially inseminated our cows from
various bulls and now, having so many cows, We decided
we ought to have my
own stock bull. After a lot of enquiries we found Ardo Figaro M002511 near
Abbeymore, Scotland. At 10 years old his pedigree and prodigy
were exceptional. |
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We had Ardo Figaro for four years
and, after a lot of tender loving care, he stamped his
authority on our cows. |
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We then purchased Dirnanean Nugget M008567. This was an
exceptional bull with a little bit extra on the 'back
end'. Dirnanean Nugget produced a bull call Key Trendy
M015494 and after many successes at county shows Key
Trendy was
sold in Perth for £4000.
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We were then very fortunate to acquire Rickardstown
Jumbo I000149. We had him for a year and he served several cows.
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Following three tremendous bulls we gambled on a
young calf who was an embryo from the breeder Mr P Stennett called
Grovehouse Bold S001757. He didn't leave his mark instantly but all our
stretchy cows go back to him.
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After Grovehouse Bold came Ingleston Vandal M019496.
He had previously made 10,000 guineas at Perth. Ingleston Vandal was a
lovely bull but he unfortunately hurt his back and he never recovered.
The few cows he served are of high quality and remain in our herd. |
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I then struck a deal to bring Twyford
Washington M020809 to the farm. We fed him up and showed
him. He was very successful at the county shows. At the
Royal Show in 1994 he was awarded Champion Bull and
Reserve Overall. Twyford Washington has left some good
stock. |
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Brinkton Chalky S001788 followed and
he produced some lovely fleshy cattle. |
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Shannock Laser M055249 was purchased from a friend, Mr
I Turvey, a local breeder. Shannock Laser's prodigy has had many successes around the show
circuit, winning many sire group prizes. |
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We then bought Innerwick Norseman M059725 after the
Perth Bull Sales. Innerwick Norseman is a lovely long fleshy bull who
will remain with us. |
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Recently we made the decision to reduce our cow
herd from 80 to 20-25. This was a heart-breaking decision but the rising costs of producing stock forced us to
consider the overall business. |
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This reduction has probably worked in our favour.
It has enabled us now to focus our efforts on
producing high quality stock with the added advantage of having them
close-by on our own land. |
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We recently purchased Falondene Rumpold
M063347 from Perth. He
has had a few calves and we are awaiting his results in the next few
months from 9 of our cows. |
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Hollingwood Tom M066580 is our new stock bull
and he will shorthly be putting some all-round quality back into our cows.
Hollingwood Tom comes from a great line and was sired by the exceptional
Sterling Flint M042435. |
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The plan is to AI and breed with
Hollingwood Tom and we look forward to exciting times
and greater success! |
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