About Elderberry Limousins

The Blenkhorn family have been farming at Elder farm in East Yorkshire since 1941. It now consists of 350 acres producing haylage for the horse market and cereals, with cattle playing an important part as they always have.

The Elderberry Limousin herd was established at Elder Farm in 2002 and since then we have worked to try to establish a herd of 50 quality cows with milk, calving ease and good temperament but also with the genetics behind them for them to consistently produce quality, here, and wherever they might go.

Before we started breeding pedigree limousins we had a 70 strong commercial herd of good quality increasingly near-pure Limousins. Since BSE we had been keeping our own replacements and therefore got closer and closer to pure bred Limousins. It was then that we saw the benefits of pure Limousins - they could still milk well without dairy influence and were a quieter animal than the first cross-bred cows we had bought. We also saw the benefits in the end product with faster growing and better quality bulls resulting in better prices. It was at that time, after purchasing a new stock bull for the herd that we decided to sell out the commercial herd completely and purchase pedigree females.

Over the last eight years it has been a learning process and over that time we feel we have added cattle with strong genetics. This culminated in the purchase of Milbrook Alistair from Roscrea Premier Sale in Ireland, March 2007 for 16,000 euros. Using ET together with top AI sires and our herd sire, Alistair, we aim to take the herd forward producing Limousins that will show and go on to be excellent breeding cattle. The herd is signet recorded and a member of SAC Premium Cattle Health Scheme. We have been closed since April 2008, with only two purchases since 2006.

We have now become accredited for BVD and aim to continue to work towards accreditation for other diseases, for further information on our herd health status, see the herd health page. In October 2008 we sent Milbrook Alistair to cogent for semen to be collected and now offer for sale both conventional and sexed semen, available for Worldwide distribution. For further details see his page (Herd Sire) or contact us by telephone or email.

We hope you find the site of interest,

The Blenkhorn Family