Sandy Bar Ranch and Valley Blossom Ranch Angus females have been developed in our breeding program to not only survive in our sometimes harsh environment, but they must excel by producing a good calf every year. The herd consists of over 350 registered Black Angus cows, plus a select group of commercial heifers that are also bred each year. Sandy Bar cows are bred for a 60-day calving interval. Dry cows are shipped.

A complete cow herd inventory is maintained in the Sandy Bar herd management computer program. This provides instant information on adjusted weights, calving intervals, the number of calves each cow has produced, where the cows are located, who has purchased them and how much each cow is contributing to the Sandy Bar income pattern.
Embryo transplants are also a part of the Sandy Bar Angus breeding program. Top cows are flushed each year with Davis-Rairdan carrying out all the embryo work.

With the advent of the Canadian Elite Cow Report introduced by the Canadian Angus Association in 2003 as an effort to identify superior cows in the Angus breed, Sandy Bar Ranch and Valley Blossom Ranch were happy to see that 60 of our cows “made the cut”. An Elite Cow must have a minimum of three calves to determine her regularity of calving and ability to consistently produce calves with a superior weaning weight year after year. The criteria for this program
is as follows:

  1. The cow must be enrolled in the Canadian Angus Performance Program.
  2. The cow must have a calf with a 205-day weight recorded within the past 18 months.
  3. The cow must have her first calf no later than the within-herd average age of first calving plus 30 days. The within-herd average calving age is calculated individually for each herd.
  4. The cow must maintain a regular calving interval.
  5. The average of the cow’s first three calves’ weaning weight ratio must be at least 105.
  6. If she fails to do this with her first three calves, she can qualify later providing the average progeny weaning weightratio is 105, and she meets the other requirements.
    The cow’s calf must be in a contemporary group with no less than 10 herd mates to determine the weaning weight ratio.
  7. The cow’s progeny must be sired by a registered Angus bull.
  8. To continue to qualify each year, the cow must produce regularly (stay within the regular in-herd calving interval) and wean a calf that helps maintain or improve the average weaning ratio of 105.
  9. Once a cow is designated an Elite Cow, she is always an Elite Cow, however she will not be published in a year where her index average drops below 105.