Gallery

Beefmaker

Tex was our first full-blood Limousin bull and he'll always have a special place in our hearts. He's pictured here with Dad and Mark in 1980.

The Bill and Gloria Leonard home, built in 1912, after a January blizzard. Leonard Limousin was established here in 1969.

Two generations of Leonard girls have represented the beef industry as queens. Lori represented the Limousin breed as National Queen in 1980, shown here giving her acceptance speech at her crowning in Houston.

Sheryl served as Iowa Angus Queen and Ida County Beef Queen in 1979.

Emily was crowned Iowa Limousin Queen in 1996.

Erin represented the Limousin breed as Iowa Queen in 1997.

Ember served as Iowa Limousin Queen in 1999.

Denae represented the Angus breed as Iowa Princess in 2004.

This is Emily, born in 1979, pictured with Aunt Lori's sash and crown. We had a hunch she'd grow up to be a Limousin Queen herself, and sure enough she did!

At one of our cattle sales on the farm in the 1980s. Those sales were a lot of fun, but we sell everything private treaty now to give folks more time and more information to make the best-possible decisions about the genetics they're adding to their herds.

Mom and Dad are shown here at the farm in 1991.

We were breeding up our herd in the 1970s, A.I.'ing our Hereford, Angus and Charolais cows to the highest-performance Limousin bulls we could find. We had pairs like this - halfblood cow by Edmond with Mr. Texas calf - in our pastures and it was a time of anticipation and excitement. A lot of days in the '70s felt like Christmas morning.

Our Polled Hawkeye was the highest performance polled Limousin bull in the breed at the time. We used him extensively 1980-1986 and sold semen into 35 states and five foreign countries. He was the first polled bull to top the sire summary for yearling weight. We used him successfully on first-calf heifers and his daugthers produced some of our highest-selling calves in the '80s.

Lori is at the halter of LLR Miss Perfection, a champion at the 1983 Iowa Beef Expo, with Bill at left holding the trophy. Perfection is a daughter of Jr. Miss and Black Mercedes. We all talk about those "once-in-a-lifetime" individuals and with Jr. Miss and Perfection we were fortunate to have twice-in-a-lifetime females. Their descendants make up the core of our herd.

Mark with one of our pens in Denver, along with Bob Gibbs and Blake Roepke.

Mark with a pen of bulls out of the great Sooner JR., in the yards at the Denver Stock Show.

Mark and eldest daughter, Emily, were photographed at a show that made the cover of the magazine in 1991.

Father and son talk things over in 2004.

Part of the cow herd grazes at Mark and Sheryl's during summer 2010. This photo made the cover of American Cattleman magazine that year.

This old wooden gateway has welcomed countless friends over four decades, and counting, who have come to appraise our Limousin cattle. You are always welcome at Leonard Limousin & Angus.

Nana Sheryl and Olivia lending a hand feeding the bulls.

The calves having fun on the summer playground.

Josie bottle feeds her calf.

Mark shows grandson Calder the yearling bull pen.