Limousins have always been renowned for their terminal sire attributes, but they also make for an ideal suckler cow breed producing progeny with premium extra muscle at sale time for the Cameron family of Wester Bonhard, Scone, just outside Perth.
"I've always had a passion for Limousin cattle because of their shape and conformation but it is the females that can often outperform the males when they make for such good cows," said Graham Cameron who farms with his wife Shelly who is a health visitor, and their two children, Abbie and Alix, while his parents Sandy and Ann are also very active in the farm business.
"Limousins were brought into this country for their superior shape and ease of calving characteristics and these attributes still pay dividends here. I've always relied on the breed because it produces the type of calves wanted in the market place whether that be the finishers or the butchers and because the pure-bred and commercial Limousin cows are easily kept and produce quality calves with few if any problems at calving."
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Backing up these statements are the sale prices of the commercial calves which last year saw the business sell 11-13-month-old Limousin crosses to average £1553 or 341p per kg – up a colossal £227 and 66p per kg, respectively on the year. Top price was £1800 for a heifer.
Notably, most of the stot calves sell to a regular buyer from the North of England who finishes them to top the live market at Thirsk Auction Mart. Previously, Walter Dandie, Learielaw, often bought the calves for finishing, again at premium prices.
Breeding such superior quality, it comes as no surprise that the 100-cow unit won the 2023 overall Commercial Herd of the Year in the Scottish Limousin Club's competition. The event, judged by James Nisbet, Sorn Mains, first saw Wester Bonhard take the award for the best commercial large herd, a blue rosette for its calves, and a third prize for the farm's bulling heifers, before landing the supreme.
"James told me he was most impressed with the cattle here because they were of a nice type and the most uniform of all the herds he had judged, and, they didn't have any zips up the side," Graham said.
"Don't get me wrong, we have had bad calvings in the past and one year we had nine caesareans, but that was a long time ago and that was down to being given bad advice on what to feed cows on the run up to calving.
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"On average, we'll have one caesarean a year, because the calf is coming the wrong way, not because of the muscle on it or the cow. We've got cameras in all the calving sheds now and most years we'll pull six or seven and the rest calve themselves."
Key to that success is the type and size of cow Graham looks to breed from, condition score pre calving and the bulls used.
"If you want to breed quality calves you need to have quality females and I like good, medium-sized square Limousin cross cows. I don't really look at EBV's when buying a stock bull. I'm more interested in buying a bull with a shorter gestation to get small calves born. I also like the muscle gene, but I wouldn't look to buy a new stockbull with a double Q or N gene. We have to watch we don’t lose sight of the reason people rely on the Limousin breed and that's for its easy calving trait."
There are five Limousin stock bulls run on the farm – two Ampertaine Jamboree sons bought privately from the Ronick herd and Westpit Nando a Dinmore Immense son also bought from the Dick- family. Two of the three are made up of the Q and the easy-calving F94L genes, with the other untested. The other two bulls – Mariascote Romeo, boasts a double F94L for use on the heifers, with Westpit Shishkin having one of each, F94L/Q204X.
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Notably, they are of different types, with the double F94L standing taller and stretchier and proving an ideal cow maker with good muscle, while those with the Q gene and the easy calving myostatin are smaller and shapier.
Care is also taken not to have cows too fat for calving in the spring and heifers calving at three-years of age to allow them time to grow and mature before producing offspring. Graham also believes cows last longer calving at three instead of two years, with several cows in the herd in double figures.
Up until this year, ammonia-treated straw was used to feed the cows when they are brought inside for weaning in October through until a month before calving in February. This meant cows gradually lost condition over the winter and were provided with extra nutrition just before calving in the form of good quality silage to ensure sufficient colostrum. It worked too, with Wester Bonhard cows having the size and energy to calve and with sufficient milk.
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This year, however with few contractors now treating straw, Graham has been feeding home-grown ad-lib wheat straw and 20kg of silage per head per day from weaning.
"The winter feed ration is so important and wheat straw is a better feed than barley straw for in-calf cows when it's rougher and cows tend to eat more of it," he said adding that cows are fed a higher concentration silage ration after calving.
New born calves have their navels dipped in iodine and are put in individual pens with their mothers for a couple of days when they are also tagged, bull calves are ringed and dehorning paste is put on all horn buds.
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With the soils being deficient in copper at Wester Bonhard, calves are given two small sheep copper boluses and a vecoxan drench before turnout to grass with their mothers in May. Calves are also introduced to a creep feed at this time with the first tonne containing decox to help prevent coccidiosis and are then fed Harbro beefstock nuts.
Being predominantly arable, livestock fields tend to be on the smaller side and are therefore set stocked. Hence bulls tend to run at a ratio of 1:20 cows, which may seem a bit of an easy life for the boys but it does keep the barren percentage down with the past few years boasting a 95% calving albeit over a three-month period.
Most years, the cattle are out at grass until late October, when they then come inside to straw-bedded courts. This year, they were weaned a week later with the cows dozed for fluke, given a trace element bolus containing iodine, vaccinated for BVD and tested for Johnes. Cows are also given a Rotavec injection two weeks before calving.
Calves were vaccinated with Rispoval intranasal at weaning, however with pneumonia being such a problem over the past few months, Graham will be vaccinating as soon as the calves come inside next year.
Once the calves have settled into being inside, they are moved to the contract farmed unit at Balgarvie, Scone; split between stots and heifers and fed Maxammon-treated barley, silage and minerals.
Most years, the business keeps eight heifers as replacements, but Graham also buys in a few Limousin cross heifers with black Limousin cross heifer calves at foot to ensure quality is kept at the forefront.
"You have to buy quality in your females if you want to breed quality," he said adding that the business has previously bought top breeding heifer outfits from heifers and calves from the Mackies at The Ross, Craig and Teen Malone, Pitcairn, up to £4800.
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Having missed the Bull Sales due to unforeseen circumstances last year, Graham is looking forward to getting back down to Stirling to see the Limousin entry which he believes is gaining in popularity due to the rangier types with muscle seen at United Auctions compared to other centres.
"Limousins have always ticked the box here, both as a terminal sire breeding superior quality calves for finishing either suckled, store or finished, but also as a cow producer. There is little to beat a square, rangy Limousin cross cow that can produce a quality Limousin cross calf with muscle and shape," concluded Graham.
Farm Facts
Family: Graham and Shelley and family, Abbie (15) and Alix (13); and Graham's parents Sandy and Ann Cameron.
Acreage: 300acres mostly arable ground at Wester Bonhard with a further 250 arable and permanent pasture ground contract farmed at Balgarvie. Two cuts of grass silage are taken each year and ensiled in a single pit.
Livestock: Just under 100 Limousin and Limousin cross cows producing calves sold as Limousin cross yearling calves sold through United Auctions' Perth Sale at Stirling in April. The family also own a 90,000 broiler unit and have done since the 1960s.
Show success: Scottish Limousin Cattle Society Club Commercial Herd of the Year 2023 also winning first prize spring-born calf tickets at local Kirriemuir and Braco Shows.
Diversification: Three woodchip biomass boilers and kindling and log business with products sold on farm.
On The Spot
Biggest achievement: Winning the spring-born calf championship at the September Spectacular and more recently the Limousin Commercial Herd competition.
Best investment: Third stock bull I bought – Crossdykes Vagabond from Allan Common, in Perth in 2006 for 5800gns. He started molding the calves into what they are today.
Best advice: Put as much effort into selecting your breeding females as selecting your stock bull.
Top tips for calving: Making sure the cows have all they need for calving – make sure they are in the right body condition, and have sufficient minerals and trace elements which can save a lot of work at calving time.
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