Ann Loughnan and her late husband Joe experimented with a variety of different purebred and composite bulls for their yearling beef operation before settling on purebred Limousin bulls as the most profitable terminal sires. The results have proved both profitable and palatable, with yearlings from their operation making their way into the Brisbane restaurant trade.

Ann Loughnan had, and still has, a soft spot for purebred Hereford’s but after eight years of crossbreeding with Limousin bulls even this dedicated Hereford breeder cannot deny the benefits of Limousin bulls.

"You do get more weight in your Limo cross calves," Ann admitted with a smile.

Ann and Joe tried Limousin bulls on the recommendation of a friend who works as a cattle buyer at Dalby.

The couple had tried various crosses on their Roma property, ‘Bowann’ with mixed results.

Bulls that they had tried included Murray Grey’s Hereford’s, Santa Getrudis and Angus. The Loughnan’s had also experimented with composite bulls but decided to stick with purebred sires.

"We tried the composite bulls for a year over our purebred Hereford females but we thought we would do better using a purebred bull over our crossbred cows. There was nothing uniform about the composite-bred calves either in make or shape or bone."

By comparison the Limousin-cross calves weighed more than any other cross, were even in type and were better to handle than the Santa Gertrudis infused calves.

"The Limo calves that we have are beautiful to handle, I can do all the cattle work on a motorbike with only one other man to help me. Compared to the Limo’s we found that the Santa Gertrudis cattle could be really roguish," Ann commented.

She said that her late husband had been very proud of the Limo-cross calves they had bred and even had framed pictures of some of their best steers on display in the house.

Since his passing Ann has continued the program that Joe instigated, crossing purebred Limousin bulls over F1 females on their property, Bowann" situated 50 kilometres west of Roma.

The property is lightly timbered with brigalow and box and pastured with a mixture of Mitchell grass, White Spear, Blue grass and some Buffel grass.

Water is supplied from a number of dams and a bore.

"Our rainfall is supposed to be 23 inches but we haven’t had enough rain to totally fill our dams for four years," Ann said, "The cattle have had to make do on the native pasture because we lost last year’s oats and if we don’t get some rain soon we could lose the 1400 acres of Nugene oats that we’ve planted this year."

Despite the poor seasons the cattle are holding their own. Last years weaners were sold directly off their mothers at approximately nine months of age. Although they missed out on the three months on oats that Ann likes to give her weaners these Limousin-cross calves weighed in at an average of 259.4 kilograms and brought an average price of $483 each.

The vealers were the product of an operation that sees six Limousin bulls mated to approximately 220 Santa/Hereford, Angus/Hereford and Santa/ Angus females.

The Loughnans have great success with Limo-cross calves

Cows and calves are grazed on native pastures and all of the calves are weaned from the mothers at approximately nine months of age. At weaning they are given a week of yard training which ensures that they are totally quiet and docile when they are sent to the saleyards three months later.

"Every afternoon we tail them out of the yards and then back in on the bikes, just to give them a bit of education and to get them used to people. With the cost of labour we can’t afford to have cattle that aren’t easy to handle."

The weaners are usually grazed on oats with a grain supplement for a further three months before being sent to auction at the Moreton Saleyards.

"Moreton is by far the best place for us to send our yearlings. They generally split them up into pens of five and they make pretty good money going into the Brisbane restaurant trade.

The six bulls that Ann is currently using come from John and Rosemaree McCarthy’s Rosehill Stud at Clifton and Ann said she has been pleased with their results.

"They are beautiful bulls. I particularly like the bulls from Rosehill Roger, they’re very hardy and they have exceptional length."

Ann generally purchases her bulls at approximately two years of age and then turns them over at about seven years of age, selling them direct through the Roma Saleyards.

She said that it takes them their first season to acclimatise properly to the harsh conditions at Roma but after that they are extremely hardy, handling the dry conditions with no trouble.

Ann added that the Limousin crossbreeding program has become a vital aspect of their enterprise.

"I think these days you have to be crossbreeding if you want to make any money."