A SIMMENTAL bull has achieved a record-breaking weight gain of 3.33kg a day on an upland farm in County Durham.

Derwentwood Nighthawk is a spring 2002-born bull owned by Neil Hunter who runs the Derwentwood herd with his wife, Alison, at Woodlands Hall Farm, Knitsley, near Consett.

Nighthawk is by Drumsleed Kelso, the herd sire, which the Hunters bought at Perth in February 2001 for 5,800gns. Kelso had a 400-day weight of just under 800kg.

Nighthawk was weighed in January at nine months old. Since his previous weighing in October 2002, his average daily gain was 3.33kg. Two others in the same group gained 2.75kg a day during the same period.

"In October we felt we weren't feeding them enough to enable them to express their true genetic potential," said Mr Hunter. "When we stepped up intakes of our ration of oats and coarse calf mixture - nothing fancy - they really moved up a gear.

"While there may have been a degree of compensatory growth, it is important to remember you are still dealing with a ruminant which has achieved a feed conversion rate of 3.5-4:1 which is certainly impressive. I just couldn't believe it."

Nighthawk, which is bound for the next Perth bull sale in October, has a current beef value of 34, putting him among the UK's highest young ranking bulls on performance.

Another bull in the same group, Derwentwood Nero, has a beef value of 32, and a third, Derwentwood Nirvana, one of 35. All three are out of dams by different sires. Their current daily weight gain as they approach 12 months is about 1.8kg.

The Derwentwood herd has been performance recorded for more than ten years and Mr Hunter said buyers were keen to see figures to support their visual assessment when selecting a new bull.

"Looks are still number one but there is a new generation of younger men who recognise the value of figures," he said. "It's something that can only become even more relevant to sire selection in the future."

Scottish beef producers showed their faith in the Simmental at last February's Perth sales, when the average was £3,637, and Mr Hunter feels beef farmers south of the border would be pleasantly surprised if they looked more closely at the weight gain and performance being achieved.

"Breeders are producing a very different type of Simmental bull compared with ten years ago and it's beef finishers who will benefit most from these genetics," he said. "The end result is faster growing, heavier cattle, leaving bigger margins."

He said the breed still had an important role as the sire of suckler-cross females but great effort had been put into the Simmental to identify the genetics which could produce sires with improved beefing qualities while still retaining their maternal traits.

"We are now aiming for length and fleshing with width and heavy muscling in the hindquarter," he said. We have proved, by our performance recording, that, even when you push for these beefing characteristics, you can still retain the breed's desired female traits."

He is confident commercial producers needing to maximise returns from finished cattle will find it difficult to ignore the high levels of performance now among Simmental bulls.

"And, as more beef cattle are sold deadweight, more finishers will become less influenced by colour," he believes. "Colour prejudice should not be allowed to undermine profitability and Simmental-sired prime cattle will prove that."

The Hunters bought Woodlands Hall Farm in 1989. Three good cow families have emerged from their foundation females, which trace back to sires including Lodge Nicholas and Scottish Herod.

The 322-acre Woodlands Hall Farm runs 35 pedigree Simmental cows and 460 North of England Mule ewes. The herd is managed commercially with cows in-wintered in straw yards and calving March to May and November to January