Feature
beginning with their unlimited potential. He
praised his fellow breeders for working hard
advancing the qualities of the breed along with
touting the directors of the Canadian Limousin
Association, especially recognizing the hard
work of General Manager, Tessa Verbeek. The
85% repeat customers combined with feedlot
owners who intentionally seek out the cross
bred cattle from their bulls to background and
finish, demonstrate they are on the right track.
featuring a black high seller and some years a
red. They calve a portion of their cows in January/
February with those bull calves marketed as
yearlings the next spring and another group of
calves in April/May, with these bull calves weaned
late and backgrounded to market as 2-year-old
bulls in the upcoming year. The females they sell
are usually sold privately to repeat customers.
Being active in 4H, rodeo and showing cattle
throughout Alberta every year has been a large
part of their life. They routinely show at the Farm
Fair in Edmonton along with the Camrose Alberta
Bull Congress mixing occasional trips to Agribition
in Regina Saskatchewan. Neil spoke with pride
when he talked about the family times they
spend together showing their cattle. Braeden still
helps when he can and is also working at John
Deere to become an Agricultural Mechanical
Technician. Annie has taken on the role of
spear-heading the cattle shows as Neil claims
“the cattle love her, and she just loves them.”
Neil was quick to mention though that while
showing cattle is great, the commercial cattlemen
have specific needs for their herds. He says,
“they want what they want. Bulls should look
like bulls and females should look feminine.
The bulls need to be deep and thick and in
working clothes with good hair coats. The
shiny show cattle are nice but aren’t always
what the commercial producer wants.”
When I asked Neil where he saw the future of the
Limousin breed going, he spoke only positives
14 | NOVEMBER 2018
In discussions with Neil, he talked about an older
friend and cattle breeder that had given him
some good advice early in his career. He had
stressed, “work on the females and the bulls will
come.” Diamond C Ranch has tried to do this right
from the start. They continue to produce top
quality Limousin cattle that they stand behind
100%. Neil says, “we will never just drop off a
bull and drive away. We are proud of the cattle
we produce and will support our customers
completely. Our slogan is ‘Put a Diamond in Your
Herd’ and we’re very proud of our Diamonds.”
Through talking with the Christiansens, I
came to recognize that the goals, hard work,
passions and philosophies they use on the
Diamond C Ranch sound very familiar. In fact,
they sound very much like the qualities other
Limousin breeders I have met strive for. Maybe
the world-wide Limousin community is more
alike than we thought at first glance. I