Highest Altitude Angus®
Registered Angus Bulls bred exclusively for Altitude
Battle Creek raises registered Angus above 8,000 feet in the same high-country conditions many of our buyers run cattle in.
The bulls are developed on forage, PAP tested at elevation and kept until they are two years old before they leave the ranch. That gives us time to see more than how a bull looks on sale day. We see how he matures, how he moves, how he handles the elevation and which traits he carries from his dam and sire.
When a bull leaves Battle Creek, we know the animal we are sending and the program he is going to.
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We don't feed bulls to make a sale date. They're developed on forage at altitude and kept until they're two, because that's how long it takes them to mature without being propped up. That's another winter of feed for us and another season to watch feet, disposition, body condition and how each bull handles the conditions here.
They winter here. If we sent them down to a feedlot for the winter, we wouldn't have this product to sell.
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The first thing we select for is what can survive at this elevation. Every bull is PAP tested (a catheter run to the heart to measure pulmonary artery pressure), and that tells us which bloodlines belong here and which ones we shouldn't keep. By the time a bull sells, he's been tested twice where he'll be expected to work.
Low birth weight is where the herd started, because no one wants to be pulling calves-its hard on the rancher, the cow and the calf. We track birth, weaning and yearling weights, the dam's record and udder score, and everything that comes through American Angus Association registration. The herd is a closed herd and Johne’s tested.
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Private treaty, from the ranch. We start with the operation a bull is going into, heifers or mature cows, elevation, how calving went last year, and talk through the cattle that fit. Come look at the bulls. When there's a match we handle it directly, and we deliver.
Highest Altitude Angus® Beef
Battle Creek Ranch beef is offered directly from the ranch throughout the year.
If you’d like to hear about upcoming availability, package options and pickup dates before they’re released more broadly, send us your information.
What Buyers Ask
WHICH BULL IS RIGHT FOR MY HERD?
The question we hear most is which bull to put on heifers, and low birthweight is where this herd started, because pulling calves costs calves and cows. From there it's what we like about a particular bull and what we know about the cow behind him.
HOW ARE BATTLE CREEK BULLS DEVELOPED?
A lot of mountain ranchers run a composite, Angus crossed with Simmental or Hereford, for the vigor a purebred line usually doesn't have. Our goal was an Angus bull with that vigor and the longevity people up here need. Some of our neighbors have come back to Angus from composites because of it.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I TAKE A BULL HOME?
We stay involved after the sale. We want to know how the bull performs, how calving goes and what your herd needs next. If a bull isn’t doing what he should, we want to hear about it.