NEARLY a decade of Limousin breeding will be on show when Rob and Robbie Bennie, Classic and Huntley View Limousins, open their gates for Central West Beef Week.
The Bennies own and run Classic Limousins and also manage Huntley View Limousins, owned by their daughter Nickie Greenough and her husband Rob who are based in Canberra but help out when they can.
“It’s our first time participating in beef week as a stud, but we’ve gone around and looked at other studs in previous years,” Mr Bennie said.
“We knew it was a great opportunity to show people our cattle which is different from a show situation.”
The studs sell bulls privately and through multi-vendor sales, including the Limousin National Sale.
“Carcoar is such a good market for vealers and the Limousin-cross vealers are bringing the top money, so we’ve got good local demand for our bulls from commercial producers,” Mr Bennie said.
The Classic stud started nine years ago with cows from Donna Valley, Kensal and Froghollow Limousin studs and Huntley View began a year later.
Both studs are based on the 60-hectare property “Huntley View” at Huntley, near Orange and have been growing steadily, but the focus is on producing better cattle rather than big numbers, Mr Bennie said.
The stud herd includes 35 cows ad 20 heifers.
“We’re trying to breed cattle for the commercial producer in our region, cattle that have muscle and plenty of cover,” Mr Bennie said.
The Bennies chose Limousins for the breed’s exceptional carcase traits, particularly muscling.
They also breed for docility, producing quiet cattle that are easy to work with.
“I’d seen in the meatworks how a Limousin carcase compared to every other breed with the increase in muscling,” Mr Bennie said.
”One of our bulls, Donna Valley P First Class, sired the reserve champion trade carcase at Sydney show this year, so our breeding is relevant to what the trade requires.”
The full herd will be on show at the stud’s open day on Saturday May 7.
