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THE MONTE HOWREY HISTORY

Monte Howrey is the breeder who created and refined the Howrey Angus cow herd.  Along the way he had several breeders who were influential in shaping his breeding philosophies. 

Monte grew up in Hysham, Montana, along the banks of the Yellowstone River, on a rough-country ranch that was the sole breadwinner for the Howrey Family.  His parents Max & Odetta Howrey went through the common challenges of the beef industry, including floods and droughts, but also some man-made challenges due to experiments with Tarentaise & Charolais genetics. Calving problems and high-maintenance cow size were the main downsides of these genetic infusions, but there are certainly benefits to each breed that can benefit commercial herds.

Once Monte took over the cowherd and payments for inputs, it became clear that work was needed to develop cows that could raise calves with less money and time.  Monte realized that a little trade off in performance more than paid for itself by the decrease in input costs.

Monte spent some time working for the Van Dykes in Manhattan, MT, and learned a lot from Clarence and Keith Van Dyke about cow families. Their breeding program was focused on creating ¾ and 7/8 sisters. This was not a normal practice in the purebred world at the time. But it did drive consistency in the cowherd. Monte also learned the value of using proven bulls from Clarence Van Dyke. This went against the grain of the Angus popularity contest that still goes on today, where young bulls are touted as the “latest, greatest critter to walk the planet.” Repeated use of these young, unproven bulls leaves a lot of herds stuck with the abyss of the resulting genetic quandary in their calf crops.  The Van Dykes had a focused breeding program with a definite goal in mind.

Monte also appreciated the relationship with and knowledge gained from Tim Ohlde of Ohlde Cattle Co in Palmer, KS. Tim’s breeding was centered around low-input cows that raised calves well into their teens, a herd with low maintenance requirements. Monte also learned from Tim the value of stacking good old teenaged cows in a pedigree.  Ohlde Cattle Co. genetics have played a large role in the formation of the Howrey Angus gene pool. Please look at the Foundation Genetics page to learn more.

Monte found that he really liked what he saw from bulls like OCC Great Plains, OCC Homer, OCC Emblazon and OCC Anchor, so he would continue to stack them on each other. This created a much more consistent crop of calves then trying any of the new bulls that were the latest hot thing.

Larry Leonhardt (Shoshone Angus) was also a breeding mentor for Monte. Over the years they had many great visits touring cows and talking about the complexities of genetics and trying to keep it simple. They partnered together on flushing the Shoshone Farnces 6374 cow. Larry shared Monte’s disdain for mainstream Angus marketing.  For a better understanding of the breeding program that Larry created, please click here.

Larry had once figured earlier in life that he would have had cattle genetics all figured out by the time he was middle aged, but Larry told Monte that when he was middle aged, he realized that it would take 5 lifetimes to figure out beef cattle genetics!  Breeding cattle is a very humbling process. Larry was always good to Monte, allowing Monte to hand-pick cows out of his cow herd. The foremost of them was the Shoshone Frances 6357 cow, who has contributed one of the strongest cow families in the Howrey Angus herd.

Over the years Monte built his herd around proven gene pools, stacking like on like phenotypically, focusing on functional maternal females.  To read more about the specific genetics that the herd has been built on please visit our 
Foundation Genetics page.

Monte was passionate about and had a keen eye for creating beautiful, moderate framed cows that have performed well all across the continent. In his heyday, he sold over 100 bulls/year, half through the Pharo Cattle Co. sale and the rest via private treaty sales.  Many of the Howrey Angus bulls were high sellers through the Pharo sales, and many commercial cattlemen have found Howrey Angus genetics to have created reliable maternal cows.  Numerous commercial bull customers of Monte’s have purchased over 70 bulls, including a Hutterite Colony that bought over 200 bulls, including the year they bought 35 bulls at once.

For a number of years, Monte’s cowherd has had several lease partners, which have allowed those partners to build up quality females in their own herds as Monte chose bull-calves as his share of the calf crop.  These arrangements were a win-win for both parties. Numerous young cattlemen benefited as did a beef cattle research station in ND.  Starting in March of 2017, Kip Rath had a smaller group of Howrey Angus cow’s, but shortly before Monte’s retirement, and after the unfortunate passing of our friend Ryan Neiman of Hulett, WY, nearly all of the Howrey Angus herd were assembled and joined the Rath’s commercial cowherd at Sterling, ND.  Kip had been aware of the Howrey Angus genetics since Monte’s time selling bulls through Pharo Cattle Co, and had also had very good results with these genetics in his own herd.  The Rath family has appreciated the effects of Howrey Angus genetics in improving their cowherd.

Monte’s vision of what cows could be was shaped by travels to and study of the great maternal cowherds in the USA:

Tab #1
Evaluation of MH Titan 752, August 2014

This cow herd was built with the sole focus of creating profitable, low input Angus cattle, that excel in maternal performance traits and have always been required to work for a living.

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