Leonard Limousin Newsletter/Winter 2010

Reflecting On the Past and Looking To the Future

Message from Mark

Mark Leonard

It's winter in Iowa, so you have to expect a few blizzards, but this winter has been one for the record books. We lost power more than once due to the ice and we've had more snow to push than we've had in years. But the electricity is back on, the lanes are open and everybody and every animal on the farm are safe so we are counting our blessings.

We are observing our Ruby Anniversary here at Leonard Limousin, celebrating 40 years since we first got into the Limousin business.In each of the newsletters this year, join me as we take a short walk down a long lane of memories that date back to the 1960s. Many of you walked this trail with us and we hope you'll enjoy remembering when.

For us, and for the breed in North America, it all started in the late 1960s. Dad's family had been in the cattle business for generations already and as a pre-teen I'd been working by his side for several years. We started talking about how to improve the genetics of our stock cows and whether any of these "new" breeds we were hearing about were the answer.

They were called "exotics" back then and it was during a time of energy and optimism when "new" breeds from Europe were coming on the U.S. scene. Of course these cattle weren't "new" at all: The Limousin breed dates back thousands of years, according to cave drawings in France. But at the time, names like Limousin, Maine-Anjou, Gelbvieh and Chianina did, indeed, sound exotic and exciting.

We researched them all, and the more we learned, the more people we talked to, the more live cattle exhibits we saw, the more we were sold on Limousin.

Bill, Gloria, Lori, Billee, Mark, Ringo

We were looking to add muscle to our Angus and Hereford-based herd, improve feed conversion in the calves, raise cows that were good mamas and could handle the rugged Western Iowa winters and still get along fine in the summer when the heat and humidity soar. We found all that, and more, in Limousin. They were also easy keeping, eye appealing and easy to get along with.

I've done a number of speeches over the years on the Limousin breed, but the first one was a science fair project about 40 years ago. The project was titled "Why A.I." with Limousin bulls and I won a blue ribbon for explaining the importance of artificial insemination (which many people had never heard of back then), pedigrees and recordkeeping to genetic improvement.

 

Mark and his Science Fair project entitled "Why A.I."

We continue to keep pedigree and performance records and register all the purebred females and the bulls kept for breeding or sold to purebred breeders. When you look back over this data you see trend lines forming particularly in hip height and some of those factors that the showring influenced. Those trends are inevitable as we all tried to adjust and change with the times. As a breed, the pendulum swung too far a few times but we've come back to where we belong and what the breed has always been - medium-framed. But the really exciting trends that emerge when you study the records over four decades are the positive strides made in the breed, and in our own herd, in terms of scrotal size and maternal traits.

Another trait we stress is docility. We've always had kids around the cattle - in the fact the fourth generation of Leonard Limousin breeders is old enough now to be out there with the cows - and we never wanted to worry about them getting hurt. But the breed itself has gotten a bad rap over the years and that's a hard slate to wipe clean. It's true a couple of the old lines dating back to 1970s' show bulls did throw some progeny that were higher strung. But the breeders have selected for docility for 30+ years now and we've done a good job of breeding out that problem.

Mr. Texas, our first fullblood herdside, with Mark and Bill

This was the late '70s and we all were involved with upgrading foundation herds to purebred status. It was also a time when the only color we could imagine being of value was red. Mr. Texas was one of those rare bulls who could pretty much eliminate the white face on Hereford cows and he saw some widespread use because of that.

Mr. Texas "Tex" had the highest yearling weight of any bull sold in a National Limousin sale up to that time with a 365-day weight of 1,283 lbs. His performance was for real and he was a yearling weight trait leader for quite awhile. Even today, 35 years after his birth, he still sports a yearling weight EPD of 59 and MA EPD of 23. His daughters really were some of the great cows early in breed history and actually still would be today. I doubt that any daughters still exist, but if anybody out there has one, we'd be really happy to hear from you. We do still have some ampules of semen on Mr. Texas, our very first fullblood herd sire.

His calves were very thick and deep-bodied with remarkably quiet dispositions. They were perhaps too thick and deep for the style of the time. Today, he would probably find a resurgence of fans due to his daughters' productivity, fertility, stayability and great disposition.

That's it for our trip down memory lane for this newsletter. Come back in the Spring and we'll look at the next 10 years, 1979-1989.

In the meantime, if you have memories of those great ol' days, please email them to us at lori@leonardlimousin.com so we can include them here.

Guestbook

Most of you have met our herdsman, Dale Riessen, by now. We're big believers in performance and genetics here and I guess you could say that goes for our employees too. Dale's dad, Richard, worked for us several years back and he was excellent help. Now Dale has been working here almost five years and he's doing an outstanding job.

I hope to see you soon.

Mark Leonard

From Dale Riessen, Herdsman

Hi everyone,

To those of you I haven't met yet, I hope to get to know you this year. And to those of you I've met over the years at the Leonards', it's been my pleasure working with you.

Dale Riessen

We have some real stand-out '09 bulls ready for you to take home and some yearling heifers that you'll be impressed with. The Leonards have built their herd - for 40 years now - on performance. And the building blocks of a high-performance herd are disposition, fertility and function. I've worked closely with these cows and closely with the family and I can tell you that "Performance Is Our Trademark" is more than a slogan.

We're happy to visit with you and show you around any time at the farms north of Holstein, Iowa. Send us an email at lori@leonardlimousin.com or give us a call at the office at 712-368-2611. The gateway always welcomes you.

Take care,

Dale Riessen