Local Simmental breeder has his eye on both the meat market and the show ring
By David Blanchette
Darin Smith recently received the Pioneer Breeder Award from the Illinois Simmental Association, a recognition of his decades of work through the association to improve and promote the breed of beef cattle that he raises on his 1,000-acre Alexander farm.
“The award was very humbling,” Smith said. “It’s been fun to be able to do it for as long as I have, and I feel very fortunate.”
The 56-year-old Smith shared the award with his late father Darrell, who pushed his son early in life toward excellence in raising cattle.
“My father was serious about me being in cattle and pushed me in that direction,” Darin Smith recalled. “But once I showed some calves and got into it, I kind of fell in love with it.”
Smith, his father, and mother Marilyn initially raised both hogs and cattle, but eventually switched to all cattle. Darin Smith joined 4-H, showed cattle as a youth and worked with his father’s Black Angus cattle on the farm. The Smiths did some cross breeding with their cattle for a while before switching to all Simmental cattle in 1979. That’s the year they joined the Simmental Association, and they have been active members ever since.
“Simmentals were topping the market and it was the right fit at the right time,” Smith said. “We just carried on with it and are still doing it.”
The Smiths’ cattle operation was initially called Sunny View Farms but now Darin Smith just uses his own name for the business. Smith also partners with fellow cattle producer Kip Jacobs and his wife Alexis in Cross State Genetics, a Morgan and Sangamon County Simmental breeding business.
Smith has 70 Simmental cows that he calves annually. Some calves are sold as seed stock, or for breeding purposes, while others are sold for meat production. Smith also sells bulls as well as show and breeding heifers.
“Simmentals have good growth and good milk production,” Smith said. “They also have high intramuscular fat for that beautiful ribeye that everybody enjoys.”
Smith’s dedication and attention to detail have paid off in the show ring. He had the Grand Champion Bull at the North American International Livestock Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Smith has also sold heifers for as much as $25,000 that went on to become embryo donors and created “some very nice calves,” he said.
“We are trying to hit both targets, food production and show cattle. We can take the DNA from the donor, sire and calves and determine the expected progeny difference, or EPD, and get a much better picture on the production side of how the meat marbling and internal muscling scores will be,” Smith said. “On the show side the cattle are a little bit different, they are fancier and prettier, to use general terms. We breed them for what people want in the show ring.”
Smith and other modern cattle producers are making high-tech inroads into their very traditional profession.
“There are sales all across the United States and if you are comfortable with looking at videos to buy cattle, then you can sit in your easy chair and buy them,” Smith said. “Our Land of Lincoln Simmental breeders ran a sale for more than 20 years and now we have jumped to online sales with different breeders and we are possibly gearing up to have our own online sale in the near future.”
Smith is always willing to share his years of experience with young people, and credits a lot of his success to what he learned as a youth in 4H. Smith has been a long-time Morgan County Fair board member and has been the fair’s beef superintendent for the past six years. Smith serves on the Illinois Beef Association’s Board of Governors, and also helps area families’ children with advice on showing their cattle.
Smith and his wife Annette have two daughters, Erin and Kilee, who both showed cattle through 4-H and “did quite well,” Smith said. Both daughters have careers in the health services field in central Illinois. Darin Smith enjoys spending time with his two grandchildren and continues to grow corn, soybeans and hay with his brother Randy. But raising cattle will always be his passion.
“There’s nothing more peaceful than heading out to the pasture in the evening and just sitting there watching the cows graze,” Smith said. “It’s a good way to take the stress away from your life.”
