A Remarkable Return To Their Limousin Roots

by Sarah Anne Johnson

John, Dede, Sara and Sage Sullivan are no strangers to the Limousin breed, but after a storied beginning with Limousin cattle, the Sullivan family has made quite the splash returning to their roots. The Sullivan family resides in Dunlap, Iowa, where they own and operate Sullivan Supply, Inc. and Sullivan Farms.

It all began in the 1980s when John exhibited Limousin steers at several major shows across the country that he acquired from Barney Bain in South Dakota. “People didn’t know how great the Limousin steers would feed back then,” John said.

After showing Limousin steers for a couple years, John began working part time for Bush Boys Limousin and Fred Wood in Iowa. John spent his time getting show cattle ready and assisting with donor cow pictures. This was the gateway into his time spent working for Rosanky Cattle Co. of Rosanky, Texas, with their Fullblood Limousin cattle.

At age of 19, John and Dede moved to Texas to work for Rosanky with an $800 car and roughly $800 in their savings account. John and Dede reminisce and laugh about that trip to Texas because on their way, the transmission went out of their car and it cost $650 to repair the transmission. When they arrived in Rosanky, Texas, they had $150 to their names.

Two years later, Dede graduated college and she and John moved to Genoa, Nevada, to work for Little Mondeaux Limousin managing their show cattle. “At the time, their program was the epitome of purebred cattle of all breeds in the country. We loved the weather and that area, but we wanted to get back home,” John said.

Sullivan Supply

After their time at Little Mondeaux, John and Dede moved back home to Iowa. In the spring of 1989, at the age of 23, John and Dede began Sullivan Supply out of a 20’ x 20’ garage. “We just wanted to be involved in purebred cattle and the livestock industry in some way and work for ourselves in our home town,” John said.

“We had no business doing what we were doing, but we did it anyway,” Dede said. “We quickly outgrew the garage and moved onto Main Street in Dunlap to an old three story grocery store we rented. We had very archaic offices in the back with no heat because we couldn’t afford to fix the heat. We went across the street to the appliance store and purchased large refrigerator boxes and made offices out of boxes so we could heat small areas. We threw blue tarps over the boxes, clipped on lights and ran extension cords to have a small heater inside each “office”. It was crazy to do that and we were always fighting the lack of capital that we didn’t have, inventory was always a problem,” Dede remembers.

The greatest obstacle for John and Dede at the time was the lack of capital and the fact they couldn’t afford to hire help for the company. However, overcoming obstacles and perseverance are what kept Sullivan Supply going in the beginning. “You could tell right away with those very first products we created—Prime Time, Tail Adhesive and Kleen Sheen—that things were going to take off,” John said. “We had a trailer we purchased for $6,900 that was customized for show products, but we didn’t have a truck, so we borrowed my brother Joe’s 30-year-old pickup truck and that’s how we would go to shows,” John said.

Sullivan Limousin

After a few years with the supply business, John couldn’t stay away from showing cattle. While running Sullivan Supply, John acquired three Limousin cattle in 1991. One of those females was the legendary EAFM Cookie that John purchased from Vorthmann Limousin in Treynor, Iowa. “The Vorthmanns were great people to learn from and such a cool family. I remember the Vorthmann family and Shane Lindsey were the ones that shared Limousin knowledge with me,” John remarked.

In 1992, EAFM Cookie was Champion Limousin Female at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado. “She went on to be such a phenomenal cow and produced three Denver champion females continued on page 30 continued from page 29 in a row out of seven heifer calves. She was that gift for me—that was our foundation,” John said.

One of the most successful and prominent cow families to ever exist in the Limousin business is that of EAFM Cookie. She herself was a national champion along with SLVL Angel Cookie 140D, SLVL Cinnamon Cookie 6003F and SLVL Sugar Cookie 52C. The Cookie family and the rich heritage behind them is one of the most prolific and prominent to date in the purebred segment of the Limousin business.

In that same year, John and Dede purchased their home farm in Dunlap, Iowa, from their town veterinarian. At its peak, Sullivan Limousin had close to 200 Limousin females. They won the carload show at the National Western Stock Show in Denver multiple times, and won several major shows and Junior Nationals. “At that time we had a phenomenal young crew of people that have since gone on to be incredible in this industry—John Elder, Dave Allan, and his brother, Mark. Three incredible individuals and we had a lot of energy,” John said.

“About 10 years ago, we wanted to diversify along with having Shorthorns so that when families came to the farm they had multiple breed options. At that time, you could see that junior kids were beginning to show more breeds, rather than just focusing on one, so that’s when we decided to introduce multiple breeds into our program,” John said.

John and Dede’s oldest daughter, Sara, is no stranger to the show cattle industry. She began showing bucket calves at their county fair at the age of eight. “The very first time she was in the ring she liked it, you could tell,” John remembers.

The first time Sara won Louisville was in 2001 when she was 12-years-old with SULL Blue Baby, who won both the junior and open Shorthorn Plus shows. “She’s had a pretty darn remarkable show career, but she started slow—we had fun with those bucket calves for several years before she had her first major show win,” John explained.

A Remarkable Return

When asked about their return to the Limousin breed after having major success with several other breeds, John knew right away that Limousin cattle were still something special. “I thought the quality of the Limousin breed was starting to get pretty good. To me it’s still probably too much of a secret of how good the Limousin and Lim-Flex cattle are. So we began looking for a few and the first year we showed a Limousin female again was in 2021,” John said.

Sara exhibited the Grand Champion Limousin Female and Supreme Champion Junior Heifer, Ratliff Howboutit 008H ET, at the 2021 North American International Livestock Exposition. Ratliff Howboutit 008H ET was also Supreme Champion Female at the Iowa Beef Expo and Grand Champion Limousin Female in the junior show.

“Sara really enjoys Limousin junior nationals, she thinks the junior board and the people are extra friendly. It’s kinda fun now because people I’ve worked with over the years have children and grandchildren showing, so it’s really a neat time,” John said.

“What drove us back to the breed was the quality of the breed,” John said. “I am surprised more exhibitors from other breeds have not gravitated to showing Limousin and Lim-Flex heifers. They need to be paying more attention to these cattle. They’re cattle that just keep getting better with age, they’re so functional, eye appealing and they’re good at the basics. They’re a breed that improves and some breeds don’t. They’re just good solid cattle,” John said.

“We believe in these cattle and Limousin have an awesome product. More people should be utilizing this breed,” John said. “If they could start a third division at some shows, it might attract more people given the popularity of hybrid cattle. An opportunity to exhibit a composite

Limousin could get the attention of other breeders to utilize their breeds and there would be an explosion with that third option. This composite Limousin division would not interfere with the Lim-Flex or Limousin divisions. It would greatly grow and showcase the breed,” John commented.

When asked about the future of the Limousin breed, John believes the breed is in an excellent position. “Both segments of the breed are outstanding, the cattle are so flexible in a commercial market and the carcass merits are real. They have pretty phenomenal carcasses with reasonable birth weights and that’s a difficult combination in some scenarios. The junior program is incredible and they do a really good job with involvement in the breed. Any time you’ve got juniors involved it’s special,” John said.