OUR HERD
Our herd consists of both registered and commercial black Angus mother cows, their calves, and registered black Angus bulls. We drive the herd on horseback to Colorado high country pastures in the early summer, and we bring them down to our lower hay meadow pastures in the fall where they will spend the winter. The mother cows calve their offspring at our headquarters in the late spring.
WHY ANGUS CATTLE?
The Angus breed of cattle dates back to the 1800s in Scotland, but the first Angus cows in America were imported in 1873 by George Grant. This new breed of cattle stood apart not only in their robust health and good demeanor, but also in their high quality beef. Angus cattle quickly garnered attention from ranchers and grew to become the preferred breed that it is today, with the Black Angus breed gaining favor over Red Angus.
What separates Black Angus beef from other breeds is its high degree of marbling and fine texture, which determines the unique flavor and high demand. Black Angus beef has proven to consistently have more marbling and grade higher on the USDA beef-grading standard than other breeds. In addition, Angus cattle continuously show more evenly distributed growth and less trim than other breeds, which leads to a better, more uniform cut of meat.
Black Angus cattle also have many advantages from the ranchers’ point of view as well. Black Angus cattle are a strong breed, able to give birth with less difficulty and grow comparatively larger and faster. Also, because the gene that determines a Black Angus is dominant, while the gene that determines a Red Angus is recessive, Black Angus cattle tend to have more genetic diversity than Red Angus cattle, and thus are less likely to acquire genetic defects such as Osteopetrosis, which has recently become a concern in the Red Angus community.
Naturally hearty, they are also resistant to afflictions which plague other breeds, such as cancer eye and sunburned or snow-burned udders. Since they are naturally hornless, dehorning, believed by many animal rights activists as cruel and stressful to the cow, need not be done.
These advantages allow easier management and non-intrusive care of Black Angus cattle, reflecting the natural way in which the Eagle Rock Ranch chooses to raise its cattle.