Herd History
At the end of the 90’s, due to the heavy land at Bryn and the extra cost of 
building a new milking parlour, the decision was made to give up milking
and go into commercial cattle and pedigree limousins, rather than expand
the dairy herd.
At the end of May in 1999, the first crossbred cows were bought at Carlisle
market. The first pedigree limousin cow was bought at a Lumbylaw production
sale at Carlisle in June of that year. The following month in a dispersal sale
from the Kidsnape herd, Kidsnape Heather was bought with a heifer calf at foot,
Kidsnape Petunia, who is still breeding well in the herd. Further animals were
added with purchases from Simbo, Eden, Drysgol and Hydesville herds. A cow
purchased at the Hydesville reduction sale (Hydesville Highness) was to have
a big future effect on the Nebo herd. One of her progeny is Nebo Roberta, who
has been, and still is a tremendous breeder in the herd. Her progeny include
Nebo Viking, Junior Champion at Carlisle in February 2006 and sold to Smiths
of Bloxham for 6200gns. Nebo Amazon was sold privately to Genus, Nebo
Dynamite was sold to Redpaths Farms in May 2009 for 12,000gns, and
Nebo Director, Senior & Reserve Champion Overall at Carlisle in February
2010 was sold to W Dick & Sons for their Ronick Herd for 16,000gns. A cow
worthy of her place at Bryn Farm!
Gradually over the years the decision was made to convert the commercial herd
to a full pedigree herd and together with the breeding from the cattle we already
have and a few more purchases the converting was made. More purchases were
made from the Briarlea, College, Winnington and Fedneyhouse herd. By
now the only crossbred cows at Bryn are embryo recipients.
There have been a numerous of stock bulls in the herd over the years, including
Heathmount Optimistic, Stacey Ralph and Sarkley Utmost who all worked with the
pedigree and commercial cattle, with females from Ralph and Utmost breeding
well in the herd today. One of our previous stock bull was Broomfield Regentcey.
Semen is available to buy from Regentcey and more history can be seen by going to
‘Semen Sale’. Our current stock bull is Donnelly Fantastic, who was bought over in
Ireland in the Roscrea bull sale in October 2011, and we are already looking forward
to seeing his progeny. Together with stock bulls, quality AI service bulls have, and are
being used regularly in the herd.
We have always tried to establish a herd that breeds quiet and easily managed
animals, but also with the genetics behind them, for them to consistently produce
quality at Bryn, and wherever they might go. Since 1999, the breeding of limousin
cattle has been a learning curve. And over that time, we feel that we have bought and
bred cattle with strong genetics. And recently through the use of Embryo Transfer
programme, we feel that we are taking the herd forward by flushing the best cows in
the herd that we know are breeding well, and then hopefully their progeny will go on to
be excellent breeding cattle themselves.
Over the years quite a lot of bulls have been sold to dairy and beef herds, privately and
through the ring, with that mainly being at Carlisle. Also there is an annual society sale
at Ruthin, Welshpool and Brecon auction mart.
Nebo Limousins is a part of the North West Midlands & North Wales breeders club,
and has been place on numerous occasions in the annual herd competition, being in
1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the small herd section and 3rd in 2009 in medium size herd.
Also numerous animals have also been placed in the herd in the different categories in
the competition.
The herd has a good showing record at local shows, and has also had success at the
Royal Welsh Show. In 2006, Nebo Aled was reserve junior male champion, in 2008,
Nebo Bunny was reserve female champion, and most recently in 2009, Nebo Caryl
was awarded the best exhibitor bred female in Wales, and was also a member of the
winning team of five.
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