A:   Good question and the breed that you decide on needs to fit the goals and objectives of your operation. Limousin were imported from France and is a breed that is known for its muscle and lean meat production. They can be used as a terminal breeding program where the progeny would yield a carcass with a lot of muscle. They could also be used to cross on British breed cattle to make a nice half-blood.

The Beefmaster breed is a composite that combines more than one beed that is known to be adapted to the southern part of the United States. Beefmaster cattle have been developed by the Lasater Ranch then headquartered in Texas. The breeding program leading to their establishment was started by Ed C. Lasater in 1908, when he purchased Brahman bulls to use on his commercial herd of Hereford and Shorthorn cattle.  Mr. Lasater also developed a registered Hereford herd in which the cattle had red circles around each eye. In both his Brahman and Hereford breeding, milk production was stressed. Following his death in 1930, the breeding operations came under the direction of his son, Tom Lasater, who began to combine the breeding of the Brahman and Hereford cattle and also used some registered Shorthorn bulls. After making crosses of Brahman-Hereford and Brahman-Shorthorn, he felt a superior animal had been produced and called the cattle "Beefmaster." The exact pedigree of the foundation cattle was not known. The breeding operations were carried on in multiple-sire herds dnd rigid culling was practiced. The Lasater Ranch estimates that modern Beefmaster have slightly less than one-half Brahman blood and slightly more than one-fourth of Hereford and Shorthorn breeding. So these cattle are adapted to the southern US and are heat and insect tolerant. For Florida, I would lean toward the Beefmaster.