Armstrong Angus Ranch is a third and fourth generation ranch. George Melvin Armstrong Senior was diagnosed with MS when George Jr. was in high school. George Jr. took over the ranch and worked for the Forest Service to supplement the ranch. The ranch is now run by George Jr.’s son Chad and wife Trista and the fourth generation Kyra, Klancy, and Kaden Armstrong.
In the early 70’s in order to compare breed traits George Jr. purchased some purebred shorthorn, Hereford, and Angus cows to add to the existing herd. Deciding that Angus was the most self-sufficient and profitable, it became the focus breed. In 1975 three registered Angus heifers were purchase from George Jr.’s uncle (Dudley Ballard) followed by 5 heifers from Sitz Angus. The Sitz Barbaramere heifer has been a big influence to our cow herd. The Rose family from Charlie and Jeff Younkin has been a top cow family also. We have recently purchased 35 cows from Bob and Sally Yadon with pedigrees that have worked well in our program over the years as they felt they couldn’t physically care for them anymore.
Our goals from the beginning have been to focus on fertility, longevity, mothering ability, and calf vigor. Cows must have a good disposition and mother their calves. Calves must get up and suck on their own or they are castrated. We are currently testing our yearling bulls for feed efficiency and do try to improve performance traits, but are very cautious of sacrificing our basic function, maternal traits. Our cows typically go on grass around May 15 on mostly high mountain pasture until October 1st when the calves are weaned. The cows go out on grass until January (weather permitting) until they start to calve. We currently run about 250 registered cows and 150 commercial cows which are predominantly Angus. We market around 60 two year old, mostly forage developed bulls and around 10 select yearling heifer bulls as well as 50 bred heifers on the second Wednesday of December.
We have always tried to raise the most functional and profitable cattle possible whether through AI or bull selection. We have found that the most profitable cattle have not always been the most popular or the ones with the “best EPD’s”. It has appeared to us that many modern Angus bulls do not seem to breed as many cows as they used too. We have also been disappointed with structure issues and inaccuracies in the EPD’s with many popular bulls. We are now breeding many of our registered cows to our raised yearling bulls. This way we can see which bulls are breeding the most cows (libido) and more closely monitor structure, disposition and functionality. We still AI our heifers and about 80 cows to a few select bulls to check our progress with what is available and what has worked well for us in the past.
We thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for allowing us to serve him by raising our family and doing what we love.