Our cattle must do their job in the unpredictable environment of Southeastern Montana. In the part of Prairie County that we run our cattle, we only get around 10-12 inches of moisture a year. They summer in 5 section pastures and must travel to water. For a cow to make it here, she has to have an optimal (Monte did not like to use the term moderate) frame score, not too big but also not too small, good feet, and a nice udder. She must do it on grass that has very low protein with minimal summer supplementation. She has to wean as much of her body weight as possible and breed back every year.
No matter how good of a cow she is in real life or on paper, if she isn’t bred, she gets sold. There are no sacred cows on this outfit.
Our Cattle
We also take calving ease very seriously. We do not have a calving barn and our heifers are not checked at night.
They calve out in large pastures on the range and are tagged on horseback. Dad’s philosophy was easy to follow: if she’s a good old cow, she will raise good bulls and put longevity into the herd. Many of the home raised herd sires he kept were out of 10+ year old cows. This system has been in practice for the last 60 years.
We think there are a lot of great Black Angus producers in North America, but longevity is where Eayrs Angus really stands out.
Bloodlines & Genetics
The genetic base of our cow herd is good old bulls that everyone has heard of like DHD Traveler 6807, N Bar Emulation 5522, Bon View New Design 1407 & 878. Many of our cows go back to dad’s favorite bull he bought from Jack McNamee in 2003, JMC Impact 3912. He gave us a lot of very functional cattle that worked for years. We have also bred to Cole Creek Black Cedar and Cedar Ridge. These cows worked very well in our environment.
Many of our recent sires are out of bulls purchased from Tom Browning that go back to BHA General 149. He raised cows that stay in good shape on low inputs and bulls that are very good breeders.
Going forward, we have been bringing in a few new herd sires that have good functional cows behind them and will add a little more width, depth, and power to our cattle. We have invested in some exciting new sires such as BDAR Logo, BDAR McLintock, BDAR Bravo, Coleman Navigator, Trexler Logo, Peak Dot Roughrider, Peak Dot Predominant, and Peak Dot Boost. All of these new sires have been carefully selected to improve performance without sacrificing any of the essential traits Eayrs Angus cattle are known for.