Docility in France = Docility in Australia
Herd Book Limousin (French Limousin Society) have been
scoring temperament on all young bulls which go through their young bull test
at Lanaud (700 per year) and the female progeny of young sires being progeny
tested each year (about 200 per year) since 1990. A total of 152 sires have had progeny or grand progeny scored in
both France and Australia.
The French scoring system
includes six different ways of scoring temperament and an overall score.
Kath Donoghue a geneticist
from the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit at Armidale in Australia has just
spent three months in France working with French geneticists Florence Phocas
and Jean Sapa to compare the ranking of sires in Australia with their ranking
for the various scoring methods used in France.
The results are
exciting! While all of the French
scoring methods have a positive genetic correlation with the way sires have
been ranked for docility in Australia there is a very high correlation between
the Australian scoring system and one of the French scoring methods. Kath Donoghue is soon to submit the
scientific paper she has written with Sapa and Phocas for publication and will
be reporting the results to the Business and Technical Conference session of
the ILC Conference on Thursday 6th April in Sydney along with a host
of other topics of interest.
Big Entries for Sydney Royal
There have been a record 253 entries from 50 exhibitors for
the Limousin Feature Show at Sydney Royal.
Cattle have been entered from all six States of Australia for what will
be the largest ever showing of Limousin cattle in Australia. The large numbers of Limousins will be
judged by highly respected judge, David Bondfield on the final day of the
International Limousin Conference on Saturday 9th April.
Big Entries for Victorian Beef Week
With the addition of some first-time entrants there will be
18 Limousin studs on display in the Stud Beef Victoria Field Days from 30th
January to 6th February.
This compares with 14 Simmental studs and four Charolais in the total of
250 studs on display. Many of the studs
on display will have bulls for private sale and some such as Kensal, Southwest
and Donna Valley will have their sale teams on display.
All Breeds Heifer Show at Clifton
There is $6,000 in prizemoney on offer for the All Breeds
Heifer Show to be held under lights on the evening of Friday 17th
February as part of the Clifton Show in south east Qld.
Prizemoney includes $1,000 for the Grand Champion heifer,
$500 for the most successful school, $500 for most successful exhibitor and
$400 for each of the six classes. Three
experienced young judges will sort what is expected to be over 100 heifers and
their handlers.
F1 Females to $1,700 at Wodonga
In a yarding of 4,640 head the top priced females at the
annual Friesian Cross and Beef Bred Female Sale in Wodonga was $1,700 for
Hereford X Friesian heifers with young Limousin calves at foot sold account
Geoff Creighton of Thornton, Victoria.
He sold 35 heifers with calves and 90 joined females for an average of
$1,137 in the sale.
Premium for Limousin Sires at Camperdown
Top priced females at the Camperdown (Vic) sale of 1,400
heifers on the point of calving and 1,100 unjoined heifers were Charolais X
Friesian heifers due to calve to Limousin bulls which made $1,450. Second top priced females were 16 Hereford X
Friesian heifers joined to Limousin which made $1,330 account Graham and
Merilyn Sutherland whose property will be one of the visits on the Victorian
leg of the ILC pre tour.
More than two thirds of the joined heifers were in calf to
Limousin bulls and the premium for heifers joined to Limousin bulls compared to
heifers joined to British breed bulls was quoted at $50 to $100. My calculations are that if a Limousin bull
is used to mate 25 heifers each year for four years he will return $7,500 more
than a British breed bull. Most vendors
of Friesian cross females have worked this out also.
Hat Trick for Limousin Breeder
The Neeson family from Casterton in Victoria are probably
the only cattle breeders in Victoria to sell a major line of pure Limousin
store calves each year. Last week their
42 heifers sold for the top liveweight price of 225 c/kg or $535.50 which
marked the third successful year they have topped the Hamilton heifer sale in
c/kg terms. They sold to Ross and Tim
Baulch of Coleraine who bought the same heifers last year. "We bought them last year and they grew
into magnificent cattle" said Ross Baulch. "Actually they are due to start calving in a few
weeks." The Baulch's have a large
commercial herd of Limousins and a small feedlot.
Boyanup (WA) Tops
Top priced heifers in the recent Boyanup Sale were 368 kg
pure Limousins which made
180 c/kg or $662 account Chris Blackburn.
Moss Vale Tops
Landmark agent Ashley Clark emailed in some outstanding
prices from a recent Moss Vale sale for Limousin and Limousin X Angus calves 7
to 8 months old account B Murdoch of "Roscrae", Moss Vale (NSW).
325 kg @ 242 c/kg = $786
295 @ 247 c/kg = $728
295 kg @ 240 c/kg = $708
270 kg @ 246 c/kg = $664
"Even on a falling
market it just goes to show that butchers are still prepared to pay for the
right article" was Ashley's comment.
New Catalogues on the Web
The Donna Valley Bull Sale
with 80 lots and The Classic Limousin Bull Sale with 48 lots are now on the
web. Fernlea Limousin Stud are also
offering 12 bulls at Traralgon in February which are also on the web.
Yours in Limousin
Alex McDonald