ND Angus Association, Est. 1942: Fall Tour 2020
When somebody says the word “cow,” there are two mental images likely to pop up in your brain. First is the all-encompassing blackand-white Holstein dairy cow, and second is the all-black, sturdily-framed Angus beef cow. Walking through the grocery store in the meat section will showcase the Angus, proudly displaying labels claiming “100% Angus.”
That Angus cow is about as standard as can be for excellence in the beef industry. To a rancher, a black Angus cow (or a red one, for that matter) is great. They are reputedly great mothers, with good bags and solid feet. True Angus fanatics will tell you that the Angus cow calves easier than all the others (which statement Salers breeders will disagree hotly with).
Angus beef is lean and good quality; exactly what the consumer wants. That, along with the extreme popularity stemming from the ‘100% Angus’ label is a good way to create expensive cows. Angus cows and Angus cross cows tend to be more expensive than most other breeds in our area.
North Dakota has its own Angus Association (started in 1942), and they recently wrapped up their biennial Fall Tour, which takes place in a different part of the state. Secretary/Treasurer of the North Dakota Angus Association ( NDAA) Ashley Bruner was very enthusiastic about how the event progressed.
“We had a wonderful turnout, with participants from eight states, including Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.”
The NDAA Fall Tour kicked off with a social, to give the producers time to discuss ranching with their peers. One of the most interesting parts of socializing with other ranchers is the variety of stories about that line of work, from fencing endeavors to cows who just won’t stay in the fence to miracles that only the viewer is able to marvel at. Until they discuss them with others, that is.
Both successive days of the Fall Tour began with an informational talk with one of the NDAA sponsors. The first day’s talk was put on by Neogen, discussing genetic solutions for each step in the supply chain. The second day, Zoetis considered the value of informed decisions for commercial cattlemen.
After the daily morning presentation by a Tour sponsor, the whole group hopped on a “great big black bus” and drove out to see the producers’ ranches scheduled on the tour. The first day, they stopped in White Earth, Powers Lake, and Wildrose. At their first stop, they off-boarded the bus right into the pasture at Ash Coulee Ranch, which was likely a welcome change of scenery for the producers, who are outside on their feet for most of their lives. I haven’t met a producer yet who doesn’t like it that way.
At the last stop that day, a foot scoring demonstration was displayed for the further education of the producers.
A herd starts from the ground up- cows with bad feet do not improve
American cattle genetics, so producers try to
maximize their herds with sires and dams that have good feet. A good way to do that is to score their feet on the bilevel, nine-point scoring system. The angle of the hoof and where it contacts the ground, along with where the
pasterns are positioned is the first level; a side view of the hoof and leg. The second level is about the hoof from a top view, and how the sides of the hoof (called ‘claws’) look relative to each other. On both levels, a median number (in this case, a 5) is the most desirable. Rod Geppert, the regional NDAA
manager, brought in cows and gave the foot scoring demonstration at Glasoe Angus, based in Wildrose, ND.
The second day of the tour, after the hop on the big black bus, participants were able to see a live animal OPU demonstration, which is all about collecting oocytes, or eggs, for
embryo transplant systems. Many seedstock producers are employing some variety of the embryo transplant or artificial insemination programs. Ashley Bruner of Bruner Angus Ranch talked about embryo transplanting on their operation: “We use the ET (Embryo Transplant) program to ex
tract embryos from our best cows and then implant them in commercial cows.” They have plenty to choose from, with 400 registered Angus and 100 commercial cattle on their seedstock operation. Bruner Angus is seeing a 58% efficiency rate with their ET program, and Mrs. Bruner believes that the
national average hovers around 50%. That’s pretty incredible when one considers that the same success rate in humans flutters at 24 to 27 percent, according to the CDC.
“There was a little bit of everything on our Fall Tour,” Mrs. Bruner says. They had ranch stops
at cow/calf operations like Overland Angus from Fortuna, ND, but they also had seedstock operations like Glasoe Angus, and they also featured a ranch that has show cattle. Each day, the participants on the Tour ate certified Angus beef during lunch, which was pretty neat for the producers.
The NDAA Fall Tour is “a way for fellow ranchers to learn from each other,” and one of their stops even included Angus Simmental cross cattle, usually termed ‘SimAngus cattle,’ at Forte Livestock in Berthold, ND, where the oocyte extracting demonstration took place. Bruner Angus is going to host other NDAA members, and to showcase their success with the embryo transplant program, they plan to place one of their best cows beside all of her genetic calves- all but one of whom were born to other cows. Technology is incredible, isn’t it?
This year’s NDAA Fall Tour was so wonderfully successful that at the end, participants were already asking about the next one! Ashley Bruner said with a smile in her
voice “Our next tour will be in 2022, covering the southwest region of North Dakota.”
Mrs. Bruner’s little assistant, her youngest child, piped cheerfully, “Bye-bye!” after our interview concluded. What a wonderful snapshot of life in a bustling, successful ranch, surrounded by children and cows. North Dakota’s producers are very family-oriented, as the producers on the NDAA Fall Tour showcased. 2022 is the next NDAA Fall Tour, so for pro
ducers of any type, it’s worth considering on your calendar.
Stops on the “big black NDAA Fall Tour bus” included:
Ash Coulee Ranch, White Earth.
Began in 1967, this two-generation, familyowned ranch calves in their pastures and uses line breeding to their best advantage; creating fertile cows with great mothering ability who passes on a wonderful fleshing ability to their calves.
Feiring Angus Ranch, Powers Lake.
Beginning with black Angus in 1945, Feiring Angus Ranch strives to produce range cattle who calve in late April to May and require very low inputs to thrive in their northern North Dakota home.
Glasoe Angus Ranch, Wildrose.
Run by another fourgeneration family, Glasoe Angus also uses embryo transplant and AI, and retain heifers
to continue their herd to the next year.
Overland Angus, Fortuna. Four generations of Overlanders have run this ranch, and they started with black Angus way back in 1964. From there, it was a natural swing to make from commercial cows to partially purebred cows and bulls. Overland Angus calves in mid-April.
Sundsbak Farms,
Des Lacs.
The sole show cattle farm on the tour, Sundsbak Farms uses AI and embryo transplant to maintain good genetics on their four-generation cowherd. Registered Angus cows with integrated Simmental genetics are extensively AI’d and increasingly embryotransferred to have a functional, efficient calf.