OUR HISTORY
Alcan Angus
Angus cattle have been a part of the Munton family all their lives. Doug purchased his first Black Angus female in 1960 from Coalbridge Farms of Coaldale and became a student of breeding registered purebred Angus cattle tutored by Alex Sera of Coalbridge. After graduating from high school, Doug spent time articling to obtain his Chartered Accountant designation in 1972. After two years as controller of College Mercury Ford Sales and five years as general manager of Kanegawa Farms he went into public practice operating Munton & Co. Chartered Accountants. Over the course of these years, he continued breeding and raising purebred Black Angus cattle under the herd name Alcan Angus. Baros of Alcan Angus 40'73 was Champion Angus Bull at the Calgary Bull Sale and his genetics are prevalent today in such bulls as Cudlobe Stemwinder, GDAR Oscar 711, all the Crackerjacks and many, many more.
BENCHMARK® ANGUS
Upon Michaels' graduation from Oklahoma State Benchmark Angus was formed. Benchmark had been building its Angus cow herd on primarily leased property since it began in 1990. From the beginning, we have sought out the best in acquiring seed stock, bulls and females. Over the years we have acquired both the Magic Man and Fortune bulls from Ebon Hill along with a select group of females. Other females in the formative years were acquired from Southolm, Loma Lanes and Allencroft. Bulls were bought from Quinton Stevick, Happyvale and Loma Lanes. We always paid particular attention to quality genetics. More recently we have acquired bulls from Gardiner Angus Ranch in Kansas because we are looking to improve the carcass characteristics of our cattle.
Present Day
Today, the cow herd numbers approximately 300 Black Angus cows and 100 Red Angus cows. With the numbers growing and Michael's intent to raise Angus cattle, we embarked on a search for a ranch that we felt would fit the bill. The spring of 2000 saw us take ownership of the "Morton Ranch" west of Warner, Alberta situated on the Milk River Ridge. Our entire family was more than excited about this new home for our cattle. Upon moving to Warner we embarked upon a mission of developing a herd of cattle that were profitable and that in turn would generate extra profit for our bull customers. We are proud of our cattle and proud that we can be considered "Your Carcass Source".
CONTACT
BOX 997
Lethbridge, AB T1J 4A2
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Mike: 403-394-4903
Doug: 403-328-6966
Shane: 403-795-0262 or
406-366-0688
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Benchmark Beef/ Ben's Quality Meats Ltd.
Mon - Fri: 7am - 4:30pm
403-732-5122
https://www.facebook.com/Benchmark.Angus/
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Benchmark® Registered Black & Red Angus Spring Bull Sale
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Monday April 2, 2018
The Munton family has been striving to breed Angus cattle that will meet the needs of the commercial cattle man since 1960. We feel that over the years certain traits have always come to the forefront of our selection criteria. These traits are, were, and always will be, calving ease, fertility, milking ability, good hair, performance (which equates to thickness), and temperament. It is essential that the beef business concentrate on producing a product that the consumer demands.
In addition to developing these qualities we have been ultra sounding each and every calf at a year of age. We take images for ribeye size, percentage of intramuscular fat, rib fat and rump fat since 1999. These images, taken by a certified technician, are sent to The Centralized Ultrasound Processing Lab for independent processing with results sent to the Canadian Angus Association, American Angus Association, and Red Angus Association of America. Since 2011 we have been obtaining genomic data giving us Genomic Enhanced Expected Progeny Differences on our herd sires and other selected cattle within the herd. These selection tools help us in our selection of cattle that will produce high yielding cattle with adequate marbling to produce Prime and AAA graded beef which in turn adds dollars to our customer's returns.
Our cattle are weighed at birth, weaning and a year of age. We participate in the Canadian Angus Association ROP program resulting in 205 day weight and 365 day weight measurements as well as Expected Progeny Difference (EPD) calculations.
We try and take advantage of every tool available to help us select cattle that will get the job done for our customers. As well our cattle must look the part. Eye appeal is important and functionality is key.
Our cows are managed as any good commercial ranching outfit runs their cows. The calves are not creep fed and run on short grass in large pastures. They must calve easily, milk well, breed back and be easy to handle. Weaning is done around October 1st with the bull calves going on a silage growing ration which is fed to have the bulls gain 2.5 lbs. per day. The heifers go back to grass until about the first of the year. About mid November we put the sale bulls in the Grow Safe pens for approx. 90 days following which a hundred heifers go on test. This completes the spring calves feed efficiency test which then allows us to test about 50 fall born bulls and 50 fall born heifers.
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With feed being the largest cost of an operation and really with no way to measure efficiency of cattle, we decided to meet that problem head on. In 2014 we installed our on site Grow Safe system allowing each animal to be measured for feed intake. This tool is a considerable investment and Benchmark is the only seed stock operation in Canada breeding Angus cattle to be more efficient. We have always let independent scientific data do the talking on our cattle. We can say our cattle are efficient and gain and grade but everybody can say that. The third party generated scientific data is proof for what we say.
We feel we have gone the extra mile to breed the right cattle and to accommodate our customers. We stand behind our cattle 100% and want to do business with our customers year after year after year.
The Program
