Mixed farmer Scott Francis from Rutherglen, NSW reckons he has the best of both the cattle and sheep breeds as he uses Limousin bulls and White Suffolk rams.

The White Suffolks are used over 1,500 first-cross ewes and the Limousins are used over an expanding herd of 60 dairy beef cross cows.

Mr Francis is typical of many producers who use Limousin bulls.

He grew tired of heifers sired by British breed bulls being down graded for fat content.

He came across Limousins in Britain six years ago when he won an exchange program trip.

He tried a Limousin bull and has stuck with the breed ever since.

Cows calve in January and the calves are bought by John Collins, Vodusek Meats, Cobram.

"And we are not docked for over fat heifers," Mr Francis said.

"In fact we are paid the same price as our steers."

He is a devoted advocate of feeding silage: pure lucerne and pure sub clover to the cattle whenever a feed pinch occurs.

"We do not make any hay and the stock love the silage and do well on it," he said.

Cow herd numbers will be increased as pastures are improved.

Wet areas on the property are being sown to the latest released varieties of phalaris, which are free of the problems that includes palatability.

Dairy cross heifers are bought out of the saleyards, grown out and joined.

In the past the heifers had been joined to an Angus bull for ease of calving.

Mr Francis said a problem was the resulting heifer calves were always down graded due to being over fat.

This problem has been solved after using a carefully selected low birth weight Limousin bull.

"We had no calving problems and the heifers from them sold at the same rates as the steer drop," he said.

He said there were a number of Holstein Charolais cross cows in the herd.

"The calves from them by a Limousin bull are far in front of the calves from a traditional British-bred bull proving that more than 50 percent European blood is acceptable to the market," he said.

He said the calves were some of the best they had produced.

By David Everist