tell me about limousin cattle

[JPiantedosi]

I just bought a half dozen limousin cows, im not familiar with the breed what can ya tell me?

Jim

[CIW]

We cross Lim. bulls onto our F-1 BFW cows. They sure add length and lbs.to the calves. The first year we started, with similar cattle prices as previous years. We upped the grade of our calf crop when the buyer came and averaged 26 lbs. more per calf at the 240 day mark. Thats more than an additional pound every 10 days.
The cows can be a little snotty the few first weeks after they calve.
Just treat them in a quiet way. Like you would any othe cow and you'll get along good.
They are noted and have been bred for an early maturity charactaristic. Will usually breed at 14 to 16 months. They will lean up some of the European breeds when you cross on them. There are lines that are homozygus black. Good, full low end muscle. Superior ribeye. More tenderloin than any other that I have seen. All these things add up better performance on the hook.
If you've invested in a good quality cow (registered) you may be able to sell bull calves for the commercial sire market also.

[jwal10]

Impressive looking animals, some of the worst meat I ever ate came from them. Tough and dry. Black ones are just part Angus....James

[JPiantedosi]

How was the beef in question finished out? straight grass? Grain? Drylot? Im just curious. I intend to put the steer in the freezer and Im weighing my options on the heifers whether to breed them or to feed them out and move them on.......

Thanks
Jim

[ksfarmer]

My experience with Limousin cattle was brief. They were just wired to tightly for my operation. Hard to handle, very flighty.

[tinknal]

They are about 3 feathers shy of being able to achieve sustained flight............

[CCCC]

Large Framed and Flighty has been my experience. They have been know for poor disposition, but have improved as time has passed. Not my cup of tea. Our neighbor fed a pen of them that came from out west and those cattle did poorly in the lot as they never stopped moving the entire time he had them, just kept themselves busy milling around the pen. That was several years ago.

[Donna from Mo]

We had two of them a few years back. They are great mothers and have lovely big calves, but do NOT get around a cow when she has a new calf. I was used to my Jerseys, who allow me to handle their babies. I got knocked down a hill by the Limousin when I got too close. A farmer friend said his daughter showed some Limousins that were pets most of the time, but nobody could approach their babies.

[Hexe]

Originally Posted by tinknal

They are about 3 feathers shy of being able to achieve sustained flight............

OMG, I'm still laughing about that...

So, you're experience with them was not absolutely positive?....

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by Hexe

OMG, I'm still laughing about that...

So, you're experience with them was not absolutely positive?....

The only cow I've ever seen that could jump over a Charloais while the Charloais is jumping over a fence......

[Allen W]

Originally Posted by tinknal

The only cow I've ever seen that could jump over a Charloais while the Charloais is jumping over a fence......

And the Saler was all ready over the hill out of site.

[Farmer2B]

The ones that I knew were mean, and big enough for that to matter

[DJ in WA]

Originally Posted by JPiantedosi

I just bought a half dozen limousin cows, im not familiar with the breed what can ya tell me?

Jim

Shouldn't you ask that before you buy them?

Hard to generalize about a breed, as the breeder might have been selecting for certain traits.

As you may know, Limousin are a 'continental' breed, meaning from the mainland of Europe, as opposed to the British breeds. And the British breeds (Hereford, Angus, etc) are generally considered better as mother cows, while the continental breeds are more muscular and better as bulls to make more muscular calves to eat (terminal). A muscular cow eats more.

Of course the other day some Charolais breeders (another continental breed) were talking about how their cows have become much better maternally. So who knows. The maternal breeds are becoming more terminal, and the terminal breeds are becoming more maternal. And everybody is making them black. So maybe at some point we can just call them all one breed.

The limousin breed did start a docility scoring system years ago, and claim to have made great improvement overall.

http://www.nalf.org/pdf/2010/aug19/t...emperament.pdf

At the Limousin Directions Breeders Symposium in 1991, Limousin breeders identified improving disposition as
the No. 1 breed priority. Limousin breeders took seriously their mission to improve the trait. First, NALF developed
a temperament-scoring system, which the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) later adopted. The breed then
developed the industry’s first docility (DOC) expected progeny difference (EPD).
Using docility EPDs to drive selection and to cull problem animals, Limousin breeders put strong selection
pressure on disposition and made remarkable gains to improve docility. Rapid genetic progress was possible
given the strong heritability of 0.40 estimated for the Limousin breed.
Limousin breeders have collected docility scores for nearly 200,000 animals. Scores range from 1 to 6 – where 1
represents the calmest, most docile temperament, and 6 represents the most aggressive. Table 1 explains the
scoring system in more detail and gives the distribution of scores throughout the breed. Further analysis of the
Limousin docility database shows a marked increase in the proportion of calm animals (scored as 1 or 2) – from

80 percent in 1996 to 95 percent in 2008.

[tinknal]

When I was 19 I was working on a large cow-calf operation. My foreman and I was riding a large pasture of brood cows during calving season. We come across a Limousin cow calving. The calf was hip-locked. We stepped off our horses and easily pulled the calf. Before doing so the boss had tied his horse to a fence about 50 feet away (my horse would ground tie). The calf was fine but the boss figured after all that work it would take the cow awhile to recover and get on her feet, so he dragged the calf to the front of the cow. She was on her feet in an instant with the sole purpose of stomping him into mud. She chased him about 200 feet and stopped, but she would not let him return to retrieve his horse. The whole time I was standing on the ground right next to the calf laughing my fool butt off. He finally had to cross the fence, untie his horse, and walk him down the fence before he could cross back over and get on. The funny thing is the cow never even looked at me.

About a half hour later he got chased again by a Charolais cow under similar circumstances, and again I was standing right next to the calf as the cow ignored me.

It was a very good day.

[JPiantedosi]

Originally Posted by DJ in WA

Shouldn't you ask that before you buy them?

[LEFT]

Good point.... haha.

I am more concerned about them as far as production..... I spose I should have been more specific. I bought these cows right... 6 cows average of 600lb for avg, of $.83/lb. I just plan to feed em out and move them along. I was just curios what I should expect. I'm not necessarily new to cattle just never been around limousins before.

So far they have kept their high flying antics to a minimum and though we had some issues getting them loaded and unloaded they have been model citizens..... Id say the 2, ring leaders will find themselves moved along pretty quick so hopefully that will reduce any shenanigans..... haha
Jim

[tinknal]

Well, you bought them right. I would breed them this summer (not to a Limousin bull) and sell them this fall as bred heifers. You should double your money at least.

[montysky]

For the same reasons others have posted, I don't like them and would never have them on my place, happy with my BA and BB, Good luck with them.