Careful selection of location and stock has helped South Australian vealer producers, Lane, Allan and Daniel Chaplin create a year round demand for their milk fed Limousin cross vealers with Woolworths Supermarkets.

The family partnership started using Limousin in 1994 after experimenting with other beef breeds. Lance and his sons had bought 10,000 acres of land in the Woods Well district two hours south-east of Adelaide, knowing that the mild climate and good soils and water would keep pasture growing all year.

"We experimented for five or six years before settling on Limousins. We have no allegiance to them as a breed, our only allegiance is to making a profit and that’s what they help us do. They kill out better than any other cross. For example, to make the 180-270 kg supermarket grids for Woolworth’s we give them Limousin cross vealers that weigh at least 325 kg. To make that grid with straight Angus cattle we’ve had to kill them at a minimum of 340 to 345 kg."

Today the Chaplins have approximately 900 breeders producing Limousin cross vealers each year. "No heifers are kept as replacements," Lance said "they are far too valuable over the hooks."

"We buy all of our breeders in, usually from sales in Western Victoria, mostly Holstein/Hereford, Holstein/Angus or Shorthorns. We’ve also found that the Limousin bulls are really good over heifers on their first calf. I’d say we’ve calved at least 800 heifers since we started with Limo bulls and you just don’t get calving problems with those nice long calves."

Bulls were sourced from the Colac sale in Victoria and more recently from Mella Limousin Stud at Mount Gambier.

Lance said it was essential to get to know the breeders to ensure the bulls he bought had the right temperament.

"I have to admit that we did have to cull a few bulls because their calves were too stirry but we’ve found that by talking to the breeders that we deal with and by being pretty choosy that we don’t have any problems with their temperament. We’ve been particularly pleased with the bulls that we’ve got from Mella Limousins."

Working closely with Woolworths buyer Jim Lenthill and with a meat wholesaler in Adelaide, the Chaplins are able to find a year round market for their vealers.

"Basically what we did was to copy from the farmers in Victoria who produce vealers from Limousin bulls and dairy cross cows to sell at around 10 months of age. But I think we’ve actually been more successful because most supermarkets like Woolworths will go back to grain fed cattle during the winter when there isn’t much feed about."

Mr Lenthill said Woolworth’s have been extremely happy with the quality of the Limousin-cross vealers.

"We’ve been very happy with the carcases that we’ve been buying from Lance," Mr Lenthill said.

"The fact that he is in an area where he can supply milk vealers all year round is one of the main reasons that I buy from him."

"Normally in winter we have to rely on feedlot cattle so it’s good to get those milk fed vealers when you can. It’s especially attractive when you get that consistent quality," he said.

The Chaplins have seeded their paddocks with a mixture of Velt grass and lucerne and they seed with fodder rape later in the season.

"As well as the pasture, we have a bit of renovation that we seed with lucerne and a cover crop of barley. We cut it for hay late in the Spring and then keep it for the following winter. We don’t do any grain feeding at all."

Bulls are run with the cows year round to keep a constant supply of vealers. Calves are sold straight off their mothers with approximately 600 per year going to Woolworths.

"The last lot of vealers we sold were 8 or 9 months old, straight off the mother. Woolworths bought 48 of them. The top price was $2.90 kg and a total return of $737 for a 254 kg dressed weight steer."

Lance admits that there was some resistance to the Limousin cross calves initially but now the results are on the board.

"We had some buyers who didn’t like them just because they knew they were Euro cross but we’ve got the results now and they can’t argue with that."