IN the business we call farming, identifying your target market can be difficult enough but it's producing the ideal stock to suit that market that often proves to be the really tricky part.

So for a commercial herd that's relatively new to the scene to make its mark really takes some doing, but the Cameron family at Wester Bonhard, on the outskirts of Scone, has certainly done that with Limousin-sired store calves that not only sell well through the auction ring but also catch the eye in the show ring.

It's been 11 years in the making for the Camerons - Graham and wife Shelly, together with parents Sandy and Ann, and daughters Abbie, seven, and Alix, five - as they only made the decision to move to commercial cattle breeding back in 2005 and gradually built the herd up to now number 100 females.

"I'd always liked the conformation of the Limousin from when we were buying store cattle as they provide the best carcase for the butchers' market with plenty size and shape," explained Graham who generally takes care of the cattle side of the business while father Sandy's main domain is the chicken sheds capable of housing up to 90,000 broilers.

"We used to rent out the grass parks to summer store cattle on a bed and breakfast basis, but the decoupling of the headage payment system meant there was less value in grass so we thought we may as well make the most of it and fire it in to a herd of cattle."

During that initial year, the first 15 bulling heifers were bought from David Rattray, West Park, followed by a further 15 heifers with calves at foot from various local farms and a group of mixed-age cows from the Kilfedder dispersal as it was important for the Camerons to spread the age of females in the herd.

Sandy continued: "We then headed down to Morpeth to buy a number of cows with calves at foot that had been put back to the bull, all for an average of £850. We were quids in initially as the calves were ready for weaning and the export trade for cows wasn't open at the time for post-1996-born cows, so when the cast cow market opened up it really boosted the cow price."

These additions allowed for a reasonably rapid expansion of the herd to around the 50 mark in the first year which was gradually built up to number around 100 spring-calving females on the 300 acres at Wester Bonhard - which also grows winter wheat and spring barley for malting thanks to the high nitrogen content provided by hen-pen fertiliser - as well as a further 250 acres rented from the neighbouring farm.

But while females play an important role in laying the foundations for a shapely and, more importantly, profitable store calf, it's the sire that leaves the biggest impression and for the team at Wester Bonhard it's the Limousin breed that ticks all the boxes - size, shape, growth potential and marketability.

Graham pointed out: "For our system here at Bonhard, a bull's got to have good conformation with plenty length, size and scope, but I'm a stickler for being good over the plates - if they have a good back-end without the plates to match then they look incomplete.

"Adding to that, they've also got to have a good second thigh and plenty width over the top as that's where the key cuts come from - if there's no width there's no value - and we're producing for the butchers' market so need to adhere to what sells.

"Breeding figures aren't to the forefront of my mind when picking out a bull, but if I do have a look it's at the calving ease figure. Obviously we don't want it too far on the negative side to help avoid difficulties at calving but we also don't want it too positive as you tend to lose a lot of the shape we're trying to breed for."

When it comes to buying bulls, Sandy and Graham have a fairly tight budget of 4000gns-6000gns, but with up to six bulls on the farm at one time and only out with a limited number of cows during the summer months due to the size of the grass parks, they feel it's too risky an investment to fork out 10,000gns plus for a commercial bull.

"In the last couple years, our cows and bulls seem to have really clicked and, this year in particular, we've some cracking calves on the ground," noted Graham.

There's a number of recent additions currently earning their keep at Wester Bonhard, including Norman Hakka, a 5000gns purchase by Claragh Franco which has, according to the Camerons, really proved himself this year, while Goldies Glengrant, a private purchase from the Robertsons at Newton of Logierait, has left a very promising first crop of calves which will no doubt be aimed for shows during the summer.

Another is Goldies Eagle which sired the Young Farmers' champion at the Clyde and Central calf rally when brought out by Stephanie Dick but one that will perhaps be better known to some is Cristal, a French-bred bull originally imported by Walter Cruickshank for his Clury herd and later bought in a private transaction by the Camerons.

Last year, Cristal sired the commercial champion at Perth Show that also stood reserve at Kirriemuir and Braco shows before he was snapped up by Blair Duffton at Caledonian Marts' Premier show and sale in September. Later named Rodger the Doger, he went on to secure the reserve bullock honours at the Royal Northern Spring Show in February, proving that Wester Bonhard calves not only sell well in the store ring but also go on to thrive for their new owners.

But a variety of bulls offering different genetics certainly seems to be working for the father and son duo as the herd's main sale of store calves, the Perth show and sale that was held at United Auctions, Stirling, on Monday, met a cracking trade.

With an average weight of 480kg across the board for heifers and stots, the batch of 83 February to April, 2015-born calves cashed in to average 232p per kg or £1115 per head, with only the younger, lighter heifers recording a slight dip in prices in comparison to the earlier lots.

It wasn't just the prices that were back on track this year either, as the Camerons returned to Wester Bonhard with a haul of prizes - including the reserve champion ticket for a son of another stock bull, Anside Hindu; a red rosette for the first prize pen of eight bullocks or heifers; and the Willie Walker Cup for the best pen of four for the second year running having led both the bullock and heifer pens of four sections.

"Last year was a bad year for us as we had poor, damp silage which was detrimental to the weight of the calves come sale time, resulting in us losing a couple of our regular customers as the cattle weren't looking as good as they have done," reflected Graham, adding that the heifers and bullocks weighed in around 50kg per head lighter than the 450kg aimed for.

"They went on to do well for the finishers that bought them but we swore that wouldn't happen again so this year used the Harbro Maxammon preserver on the barley which increased the percentage of protein in the ration, which we further boosted with a touch of soyabean meal."

Determined not to have that drop in weights again, Graham has made the decision to take more silage samples to analyse exactly how it's going to affect the calves' growth.

"Silage is an expensive crop to grow so it's got to be good before you start boosting with concentrates or straw. We did try adding straw to the weaned calves' diet but found it had a negative impact on feed intake so swiftly moved back to using silage as the only forage in the ration."

But it's not only the calves' ration that's important as with any commercial breeding female, a sufficient diet throughout the year to cover the periods before, during and after pregnancy is of key importance in order to make sure you're left with the desired end result, a store calf to sell.

Getting this even slightly off balance can have an adverse effect on both the cow and calf, as Sandy pointed out: "A few years ago we followed some ration advice which recommended feeding protein in the cow mix. This was ultimately the wrong thing to do as this made the calves grow too big before they were born and caused way too many difficulties at calving, so now we stick to a straw and silage diet until after calving with cows offered Starlyne Minerals on an adlib basis."

"When trying to produce a shapey calf like we aim to do, there's always a risk with any breed that things will go wrong at calving and you might need assistance, and there are certainly times we've needed to lend a hand.

"But with the right management throughout pregnancy it's easier to overcome and we've found that the body condition of the cows throughout the winter is extremely important, particularly when working your way through the silage pit from second cut to first.

Graham continued: "We're also aiming to get a bit more condition on cows before they head out to grass as we got caught out last year with a very cold, wet spell as soon as they were out. This really affected their fertility so we were slightly slower to start and could prolong our calving period.

"But we don't have the luxury of holding a cow back to calve in the autumn and it's always better to have a female in calf rather than not, so it's maybe something we'll need to be a bit more ruthless about."

No matter what management system is in place, there's no denying that the Limousin breed is producing some top store calves at Wester Bonhard that are suitable for both the butcher and the show calf producer.