2023 Limousin Annual Journal

It was music to my ears to hear
how Brian considered the customer
to be king and that by customer
he considered consumer, retailer
and abattoir in the mix. As an ex
Sainsbury’s employee I know first
hand just how important consistency
and ease of supply chain process
is for Sainsbury’s in determining
its agriculture contracts. Brian’s
understanding of this is no doubt a
key benefit in his relationship with
ABP. Carcass size demanded by
the abattoir is directly influenced
by what the retailer can sell with a
margin, but at a cost the consumer
will buy.
FEATURES
Brian comments, “We have moved
away from fattening all males as
bulls and now steer 90% of males,
only retaining 10% for breeding. Our
reasons for doing this include the
high cost of concentrate feed and the
difficulty in getting fat cover on bulls
that are reaching 400kg deadweight
between 12 and 15 months. Feeding
less concentrates has resulted
in improved rumen stability and
reduced health issues. While treating
them as steers allows us to feed a
more forage based ration and takes
away the fat cover issue.
Limousin CEO Alice Swift with Brian Lear and his two sons.
A farm driven by growth
Brian’s open mind and drive to
keep moving forward was instantly
infectious. He farms alongside his
two sons and their stockman Andy
Elmes.
His sons and stockman have equal
amounts of passion and desire. It was
noticeable how they all bounce ideas
of each other, and share an appetite
for sustainable growth across their
business.
I’m a great believer that you can
only manage what you measure, so
seeing Brian’s business acumen and
hunger for data insight to improve
performance and reduce costs was
impressive. Brian’s team are huge
advocates of the Breedr app which
has transformed data capture
allowing them to measure and
manage growth rates, feeding rations
and predicted slaughter dates. The
app links to the weigh scales and via
Bluetooth and EID tags, the weights
are instantly updated.
Brian places focus on the maternal
lines, noting milking ability to be
critical given that “with Limousin
genetics, muscle is the easy bit,
it’s the fat cover that is more of a
challenge”.
Data Insights from Breedr:
Steers DLWG range: 1.173 kgs/ day
to 0.872 kgs/ day (26% variation).
Animals achieving 1.173 kgs/day
Breedr app in action capturing weights.
leave the farm 177 days sooner
than those doing 0.8kg/day with
a liveweight of 640 kgs. Reducing
days to slaughter is a significant
contributing factor to reducing Co2/
kg beef produced.
1.173
KGS/DAY
ANIMALS ACHIEVING
1.173 KGS/DAY LEAVE
THE FARM 177 DAYS
SOONER THAN THOSE
DOING 0.8KG/DAY
www.limousin.co.uk
ANNUAL JOURNAL 2023 | 45