About Armstrong Angus
Armstrong Angus Ranch is a third and fourth generation ranch. The ranch is now run by Chad and Trista Armstrong who have three children Kyra, Klancy, and Kaden. The fourth generation Kyra Armstrong, Klancy and wife Emmie Armstrong (three children Eliza, Amilia, Forest) take an active part in the operations.
Early History
The Armstrong’s have ranching in their roots as far back as we can trace. The ranch in Cardwell was founded by George Melvin Armstrong Senior who was diagnosed with MS. George Jr. was in high school at this time so after completing high school, he took over the ranch and worked for the Forest Service to supplement the ranch. Chad and Trista took over the operation from George Jr. in the mid 2000s.
Herd History
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 purchased from George Jr.’s uncle (Dudley Ballard) followed by 5 heifers from Sitz Angus. 1975 was also the year Armstrong Angus Ranch joined the American Angus Association making 2025 our 50 year anniversary of raising registered Angus cattle. The Sitz Barbaramere cow family 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 continually add females from other breeders to support their operations and to compare programs and cow families.
Program Goals
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 have been breeding to improve feed efficiency as well as improving pap data, since much of our ranch, as well as our customers are at higher altitudes. At the same time, we are very cautious of sacrificing our basic function, maternal traits. Calving season starts in late January here. The pairs typically go on grass around May 15 on mostly high mountain pastures until October 1st when the calves are weaned. We then turn the cows onto fall grass until January (weather permitting). At this time they are brought back close to the corals to start the calving season again. They are fed hay through the winter until spring grass. 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 with an online sale the second Wednesday of December.
We also offer around 50 bred heifers private treaty every fall.
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 to. 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.
