Information About Limousin Cattle

Feed Comparison
Limousin cattle require less feed to produce the same amount of retail product.
For a breed comparison, look at the chart below.

The History of Limousin

Limousin originated in an area in the middle of France (centered on the town of Limoges) and were first imported into US in 1971.  They are medium to large framed beef cattle of rectangular shape. The hair is yellow straw colored to reddish gold with lighter circles around the eyes and muzzle, and shading to a lighter color on the legs.  Limousin have a long length of body and exceptional rump.   Bulls are usually darker.  Limousin are heavily muscled with a relatively small head and pale horns and hooves.  They have the ability to put long hair on for colder climates and short hair for warmer climates and are prolific and long lived. The birth weight of male calves is on average 86 lbs. and of female calves 79 lbs.  

Limousin on feed show high daily weight gain with high carcass yield.  The combination of good cutability and medium size has given the Limousin its reputation for feed efficiency.  Feedlot operators like them because they tend not to put on fat. Meat is tender and fine fibred.  Well suited to all purpose cross breeding.  

Moderate birth weights contribute to a substantially lower incidence of calving problems relative to other breeds, while there is also a consistent pattern of increased weaning and yearling weight in crossbred calves. 

To read a more complete history of the Limousin
as complied by the North American Limousin Foundation

Why use Limousin?

As the cattle industry moves toward a structure of fed beef prices reflective of true value based marketing, a market where leanness combined with muscle will be given additional value, the limousin breed is unsurpassed in providing muscle growth efficiency. Limousin cattle can pack a multitude of economically relevant traits into a single package:

Feed efficiency - Limousin's advantages in feed conversion come as a result of lower levels of feed consumption coupled with comparable or higher levels of lean, dressed carcass weight and retail yield.

Red meat yield - Limousin is recognized as the industry leader when it comes to yielding the most salable red meat.  With the growing popularity of  case ready beef, many industry experts predict more emphasis and larger premiums will be placed on red meat yield in the near future.

Tenderness - Research has shown that while Limousin may lack the high levels of marbling found in other breeds, the tenderness and palatability of Limousin beef remains high.  This is due to finer muscle fibers found in Limousin influence beef as compared to other breeds