Long before Tasmanian butcher David Cameron had bought his own business he had decided which breed of beef would grace his counter - Limousin. He said he arrived at his decision while he was still an apprentice, and when he bought Best’s Butchery in Deloraine from his former employers eight years ago his customers agreed with his choice.

"When I was doing my apprenticeship with Alf Best about 20 years ago I met a dairy farmer who was crossing Limousin bulls over his dairy cows. When I cut a beast up for him I worked out that the ideal breed for a butcher would be a Limousin bull over a dairy cross cow."

The business now requires up to five bodies of beef per week, an impressive total in a town with a population of 2,500 people.

"We’ve found that the Limousin steaks really sell themselves," David said. "All of the meat has a nice fine texture and because they are killed as ten-month-old vealers the meat is really tender. You never have to trim too much fat off them either."

David breeds most of the cattle for the business on 300 acre property "Rockford" situated at Chudleigh. The remainder are supplied by his father Alan and his brother John who also specialise in Limousin cross cattle.

"We have built up to around 100 Friesian/Angus and Friesian/Hereford breeders over the past five years. Being in a dairying area they are really easy to find.

"We buy them all at about one week old and rear them ourselves because they’re always a lot quieter that way.

"We did the first 80 on powdered milk but now we double them up on Jersey mothers. At the moment we raise about 24 replacements per year."

Two Limousin bulls are joined with the dairy cross cows from about 30 months of age for a Spring or Autumn calving. None of the Limousin cross heifers are kept as replacements.

"Most of the time they graze on pasture which is a mixture of rye and white clover. I also make about 80 acres of pasture silage each summer and we fatten the vealers on that for their final three months.

"We take the heifers first in groups of four or five because they fatten faster than the steers and by the time we’ve worked through them the steers are ready to slaughter. It helps that we have some cows calving in Spring and the others in Autumn too - that way we have a nice even spread throughout the year."

David said he has noticed an improvement of at least 40kg with the infusion of Limousin blood.

"Usually with your dairy beef cross the vealers will only weigh about 200kg at ten months but with the Limousin bulls you get an extra 40kg dead weight which is really the cream of our business."

He added that he places a lot of emphasis on not upsetting the cattle when they are being handled.

"When we bring them in for slaughter we just walk them in on foot, the same as we do when we’re shifting them to a fresh paddock. That way they stay nice and calm which helps keep the meat tender."