Our Program

At Clark’s Fork Angus & Simmental, our main MISSION is building sensibly sized, functional, profitable, BEEF cows.  Someone once said, “A good bull is a byproduct of a good cow.”  Our GOAL is to help our customers better their program, whether to add pounds or breed better females.  Functional cows are docile, hold their condition, and breed back year after year while raising a big calf.  One of the biggest expenses for an operation is replacement costs.  That is why longevity is important.  Cows must have good structure and udders to last and be trouble free.  Profitable cows must have the performance to raise a heavy, healthy calf.  Also, to be profitable, they must WORK for a living in their environment and require less labor and less input.  Our cows not only survive, but most thrive in a dry harsh environment.  Our registered cows are run alongside our commercial cows year round.  The cows range calve out on their own starting about mid-April.  Because of this, we pay attention to calving ease, although we don’t focus on birth weight.  Again, this stresses the importance of a functional mother cow.

Simmental have greatly helped us achieve our mission and goals.  Simmental are very complimentary for all purposes to the Angus breed.  The Sim-Angus combination, through heterosis, provides an increase of maternal function or terminal pounds.  The Sim-Angus cows have higher fertility, more longevity, and added fleshing ability.  They are also profitable with more growth, muscle, and bone.  All of this is done in a uniform, sensibly sized package.  Best of all, heterosis is FREE!  We will always maintain our base Angus herd, building on their qualities and mothering ability.

Our marketing started with some local ranchers that bought a couple bulls or a group of bred heifers.  Since then, demand has grown through repeat customers and word of mouth.  Now, we are thrilled to be a part of the Big Country Genetics sale in Powell, Wyoming the first Saturday in April.  We sell a few top registered females.  We still plan to offer at least 100 home raised, bred heifers by private treaty.  We are implementing an embryo transplant program, using some proven donors, to meet the growing demand and add uniformity to our offering.  With moving our calving back to mid-April, we changed from selling all yearling bulls to a two year old bull program.  The bulls are slow developed on forage or high roughage diet.  We feel this helps the longevity and structural integrity.  Good feet and ability to travel are extremely important qualities in bulls.  These bulls are ready to cover a lot of cows in big country, guaranteed.  Some select yearling bulls will be available.