Passion for Limousins paying dividends on Perthshire farm

"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, their two children, Abbie and Alix. 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. I've always relied on the breed because it produces the type of calves wanted in the marketplace, 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."

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 £1,553 or 341p per kg. Top price was £1,800 for a heifer.

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, also 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.

“James told me he was most impressed with the cattle because they were of a nice type and the most uniform of all the herds he had judged,” said Graham.

"If you want to breed quality calves you need to have quality females and I like good, medium-sized square Limousin 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 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.

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.

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 as 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. They are also tagged, bull calves are ringed and dehorning paste is put on horn buds.

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 bulls but it does keep the barren percentage down.

Most years, the cattle are out at grass until late October when they come inside to straw-bedded courts. Last year, they were weaned a week later with the cows dosed 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, Graham will be vaccinating as soon as the calves come inside this year.

Once the calves have settled being inside, they are moved to the contract farmed unit at Balgarvie near 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 the Mackies at The Ross, Craig and Teen Malone, Pitcairn, up to £4800.

"Limousins have always ticked the boxes 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.

Feature Courtesy of The Scottish Farmer

Ballymena sale date 6th May

The British Limousin Cattle Society’s regional spring show and sale takes place at Ballymena Mart on Monday 6th May.

There are 70 pedigree bulls and 10 pedigree females catalogued.

Judging commences at 10.00am and is the capable hands of Martin Conway from the Craigatoke Herd, Plumbridge. The sale gets underway at noon.

Further details and catalogues from JA McClelland and Sons Ltd, tel: 028 9335 2727.