Gary and Beth O’Neal live on a farm that has been a part of their family since his great-grandfather bought the land.
His grandfather and father also raised cattle on the Branch, Ark., farm. His father also worked in the coal mines.
Gary admits that he was a little tired of farming by the time he graduated high school, and went to a trade school in Kansas City, Mo., for computers in 1964. He worked at Russell Stover to put himself through school.
Gary and Beth eloped 51 years ago and are still very happy as partners in life and in the cattle business. Each one has their special gifts when it comes to eyeballing the cattle and judging what they want.
Beth is a gifted artist, besides being able to look at a cow and know if something is wrong.
Gary stared his cattle operation with a crossbred herd in 1985, but always used a Limousin bull. In 1992, he went with a purebred Limousin herd.
During a three-year long battle with a rare cancer, Gary spent his “down time” researching the genetics of Limousin and Angus cattle to develop his own Lim-Flex line. He wanted to come up with a 100 percent homogenous polled and black bull family. He has said the cross of Limousin and Angus offers the best of both worlds.
Gary wanted docility and a sense of calm in his cattle with no horns. He identified embryos from the best available to develop his line of 100 percent homozygous black and polled animals. Animals are DNA tested to determine the homozygous trait.
Because he wants bulls of various ages for customers, bulls are kept with cows year round, with the exception of a two or three month break.
For Gary, the research was a labor of love, but he offered some advice to those searching for their perfect “match.”
“To any young people or anyone wanting to get started in genetics, look into buying embryos from the best first, before putting huge amounts of money into one cow,” Gary said. “They can find really good genetics in cattle by starting out looking for a little less than the best in cattle, and then go from there, without having to spend huge amounts of money to just get started.”
Gary’s ultimate goal is to have the best bulls in Arkansas to sell, and he would like to be the top homozagous bull breeder in Arkansas with repeat customers, he guarantees all of his bulls. Gary and Beth are lifetime members of the North American Limousin Association.
