Kamcheyenne - pronounced ( kam - shy - anne ) The name of the business relates to the first 2 animals I ever bred which were my 2 much loved appaloosa horses – Kamiah and Cheyenne. When I diversified production to Cattle breeding, in 1999 I put their names together and came up with Kamcheyenne.

Kamiah unfortunately died suddenly in late 2003 at our One Tree Hill property, however, Cheyenne remains to,carry on the name and whenever possible lets the cows know who really is the boss of the property.

Why Limousin ? In 1999 I was given an opportunity to lease some land and as animals were such a large part of my life I made the decision to breed Cattle. I had very little knowledge of cattle and quickly realised through minimal research that cows were not just cows. Confusion and frustration began to set in !!

My full time job is a lecturer at Elizabeth TAFE in Food Services. When I look back I believe I was truly fortunate to have a woman by the name of Nina Makin as a student. In general conversation I mentioned my quandary over breed selection in my new endeavour.

Nina Makin turned out to be the wife of Jock Makin ( deceased ). Jock was one of a handful of people who was involved not only in bringing the breed to Australia but also in the formation of the Australian Limousin Breeders Society. Jock spent over 20 years researching, breeding and studying Limousin cattle and at one stage had the largest registered Limousin herd in Australia.

Although I never met Jock, Nina was able to give me extensive information and contacts about the breed including a book written by Jock “ The eye the nose and the pencil - breeding and managing stud cattle”

So impressed was I, at the information I was finding out about the Limousin Breed but still with no hands on knowledge I felt the choice of Limousin as the female component of my herd structure was my best chance of making a go of breeding cattle.

Reason for choice of breed There are many reasons why Limousin outweighed every other breed of cattle I considered when first starting out in 1999.

Here is a brief note of some
· Longevity – the limousin can still calve with ease up to and beyond 18 years of age
· Easy calvers – females are large framed and require very little if any assistance even as heifers.( A very big factor for a fledgling breeder!! )
· Easy doers – The breed itself is French and keeps condition even under the poorest of paddock conditions
· Extremely high Muscle and low fat content of the animal produces heavier beasts over the scales – increases profit
· The Consumer is demanding low fat, tender meat. The Limousin has the label – The Carcase Breed - for just this reason.

The herd started out with a couple of Murray grey /friesan crosses and 2 French pure Limousin cows with heifer calves at foot. I was so impressed with the Limousins that I moved the crosses on and purchased 4 more French Pures .

In the beginning I was looking simply to breed for the Beef industry Commercial sector so I began by using Murray Grey bulls over the Limousin females.

As I look back now I have come to realise that what I did was somewhat out of character as most people choose Limousin as the Terminal Sire rather than the way I went about it. In fact this is how the Limousin has been marketed over the years as an excellent terminal sire stamping its genetics strongly on its offspring. It was however in researching this fact, that made me realise just how much benefit the pure Limousin female could bring to my herd.

An interesting point –that in 2004, The Australian Limousin Breeders Association acknowledged that our females have been sorely under rated in marketing strategies over the years and have plenty to offer the industry.

Change of focus
In 2002/2003 I became increasingly interested in the Pure breed. With the support of friends and the Australian Limousin Breeders Society I spent as much time as I could afford on studs etc learning how to handle, show, dehorn, understand conformation, bloodlines etc before I finally used a Limousin Bull over my herd in early 2003.

Kamcheyenne Stud had its first pure Limousins hit the ground in late 2003 with a total 12 out of 12 calves born with no assistance

· 8 heifers
· 4 bulls