Everyone in the livestock industry recognizes that we are all blessed with only a few good stock dogs, a few good horses, a few good herd sires, and a few great Foundation Females; in our lifetime. It is this type of great female that Reid Angus takes pride in building a program around. These females have bought and paid for a lot of the things that make our operation run. They truly are our Foundation!

During our early years we did a lot of embryo transfer work to multiply our Foundation females. We have continually put heavy emphasis on their genetics. In our 24 years in the purebred industry we have only sold 2 females to other breeders. We are constantly striving to improve our cowherd by retaining every top-end female we can. This tight knit cowherd has provided us with a consistency that we benefit from year after year.

Almost our entire cowherd is based on 3 outstanding cow families. In 1994 at Remington’s first dispersal we purchased a 8 yr old cow, Chalco Georgina 3 U. She calved as a 2 yr and raised & registered 16 natural calves – one each year until she was 18. From 1995 to 2005 she produced over 200 embryos & still calved in the same 3 week period all her life: January 27th to February 17th. Her first flush was to CH 054 Rito 0100 in 1995. She produced 35 embryos – 32 # 1’s and 3 # 2’s. Flush cows are given prostaglandin after the flush so that they don’t retain any embryos. Cows will come into heat off the prostoglandin but if they are bred they seldom conceive; 3 U did – every time. She was the picture of Fertility. We continued to flush her every year after that until she was 19 years old. 3 U continued to produce for all the right reasons. She was extremely Fertile, she was good footed, sound uddered, she had a great disposition, she was simply a durable, consistent female with longevity built-in. At one time we had 77 females in the herd that were direct daughters of 3 U. Her impact on our breeding program was immeasurable. She truly was:  Tried, Tested, & True.

To the cow-calf producer fertility is the most important economic trait. It is one of the most difficult traits to select for, because you can’t see it, it can’t be measured. The only way you can select for it is on the dam’s past performance. That is why older cows demonstrate it better than anything else in the herd. Fertility is like trust & respect you have to earn it!  3U did!

In 1998 Tom Hamilton of Rannoch Farms allowed me to purchase R F Lady Milne 11 D & Erica of Rannoch 100 C. Good breeders have a tough time parting with their good cows, but in his late 70’s Tom thought it might be time to let a few of the good ones go. Tom was right they were good ones. The “Lady Milne” & the “Erica” cow families have had a very strong influence on the Reid Angus herd. R F Lady Milne 11 D was a donor cow that we flushed extensively to bulls like T C Stockman 365, B R Midland, & T C Advantage. Both of these Rannoch bred cows pedigrees and influence are still evident today in our herd.

At Reid Angus we truly believe it all begins with her – the Cow. She is Fertile, she phenotypically correct, sound footed, perfect in her teat and udder quality and has longevity built-in. When producing our Bulls we don’t hope for this in their Mothers; We Insist On It!