Limousins reunite farmer with the land
WHEN a limousin-cross carcass came through Bradley Frohloff’s butcher shop, he fell in love with the carcass and meat quality.
This appreciation led him to start his own limousin stud, BJF Limousins.
Born and bred dairy farmer in Yarraman, Queensland, Mr Frohloff had to find an off-farm income when deregulation hit the dairy industry.
But Mr Frohloff found he longed for the land and, in 2004, found a way he could get closer to the agricultural industry, by buying the local butcher shop.
“I thought that way I could live on the land, fatten a few cattle and be involved with the industry,” Mr Frohloff said.
“We started as a hereford shop and, after a little while, it became apparent we had a lot of wastage and we were struggling.
“Then I had some limousincross come through the shop and I couldn’t get over the difference in the carcass and meat quality.
“I got itchy feet from when I was in the dairy industry breeding cattle. So we started the limousin stud.”
Mr Frohloff now runs 80 limousin stud breeders on his 161ha property, as well as a few commercial cattle to go through his butcher shop, Frohlies Meats.
Frohlies Meats reopened in January after being leased for seven years. He said they sold 100 per cent certified limousin cattle.
“The commercial cattle we just fatten for the butcher shop, we supplement grain feed about 40 at a time,” Mr Frohloff said.
“We get them all from wherever we can locally, as far south as Stanthorpe and as far north as Mundubbera.
“But in the long term we aim to buy them from people who buy our bulls so we can get our genetics back through
❝ I got itchy feet from when I was in the dairy industry breeding cattle. So we started the limousin stud. — Bradley Frohloff
the shop.”
Right from the start, Mr Frohloff used artificial insemination and some embryo transfers in his stud breeding program.
“After a while we started to sell bulls in multi-vendour sales.
“Then we found that quite hard, travelling around selling a couple here and there.
“So we started our own on property sale three years ago. We built a brand new sale complex.
“We have other invited vendors who come in and sell with us.”
BJF Limousins will hold its on-property bull sale on Friday, August 16.
They will offer 40 bulls, and 11 females on offer with 47 polled.
“Our breeding emphasis is on early maturing easy finishing type limo with a big focus on docility,” Mr Frohloff said.
“We have both blacks and reds.”