Southern NSW cattle breeders, Greg & Joan Stevens, have never regretted introducing Limousin bulls to their commercial Shorthorn operation in 1980.

"At that stage our commercial cattle were Shorthorn Hereford crosses or Shorthorns but we thought we could probably come up with a better cross. We ended up buying a Limousin bull from my cousin Gerald Spry and we were very impressed with the results" Greg said.

Greg and Joan decided to increase the Limousin content of their commercial cattle in order to take advantage of the extra yield of the Limousins.

"These calves are finishing at up to 400kg at 10 to 12 months of age. The dressing percentages are excellent – we’ve had buyers call us to say how pleased they are with the cattle and that they’ve dressed out at 63 percent," Greg said.

"The people who bought our vealers in January rang back to say how good they were. They’d dressed out at 62 percent and the buyer said he would be interested in buying direct."

"Milk is something that we’ve worked particularly hard to improve. We’ve been using bulls that have especially good milk figures. At the moment we’re using a Pack Leader bull over our commercial Shorthorn cows to breed better replacements. We’ve found that our F1 replacements are milking as well as pure Shorthorn cows which is something we’re really pleased about," Greg said.

Fertility and temperament are the other major issues for Greg and Joan. The couple have culled hard to ensure that all of their breeding stock are extremely fertile.

"We join all of our females at around 14 months to calve at two years. Anything that hasn’t produced a calf by the time they’re two years old gets culled.

Greg added, "Obviously there are other traits such as yield and growth that are very important but with Limousin cross cattle I tend to take those traditional Limousin traits for granted."

In September they sold 10 month old vealers which weighed 360kg for 210c/kg or $756. They also sold cows and calves for $1300. The 4 month old calves were sold separately from the cows. They weighted 178kgs and made 221c/kg or $395 each.

By using both Limousin and Shorthorn bulls over their F1 Limousin/Shorthorn heifers Greg and Joan have the flexibility to produce either ¾ Limousin or ¾ Shorthorn calves, depending on the market they are aiming at and their need for commercial replacements.

In 1990 the couple expanded their Limousin operation to include stud cattle.

"The commercial operation whilst larger than the stud side has increasing percentages of Limousin infused females. We’ve got 35 to 40 stud cows calving each year as well as embryo recipients."

Considering the prices that Greg and Joan received at this year’s National Limousin Sale the stud is indeed a significant element of their business.

The four bulls that they offered at the sale grossed $19,000 with two of the four bulls, Stevens Jasper and Stevens Polled Uptake U20, selling for $6,000 each to Andrew Van Der Drift of Cohuna, Victoria. Polled Uptake was judged the Junior Champion and Jasper the Reserve Junior Champion prior to the sale.

The Steven’s are dedicated to improving their commercial herd by using sires with the characteristics that they require.

In paying attention to temperament the couple have opened up a potential market as suppliers to the dairy industry.

"I’ve just sold three bulls to a dairy farmer in our area who is breeding crossbred vealers as a sideline. He had bought Angus bulls at first but found that they weren’t really big enough for the dairy females and that they were too temperamental to handle around a dairy.

A new manager came on board and recommended Limousins so he bought two. Before long he was back for a third bull because he was so happy with their temperament. By using Limousin bulls in the dairying industry as well shows just how versatile this breed is.

We only flush our elite females and artificially inseminate most of the remaining females to breed superior seedstock so that commercial and stud cattlemen can take maximum advantage of the premiums paid for Limousin and Limousin cross cattle.