HISTORY

The Gartner-Denowh tradition started in 1957 when Joe Gartner and his son-in-law, Russ Denowh, bought twenty head of registered Angus cows. Since then the ranch has grown but the philosophy behind it has not changed. The main focus is still to consistently produce cattle that will meet the customer's needs

Sticking to the program over the past decades has helped the ranch keep its consistency. During the fifties when the trend was to select for the shorter thicker cattle, Joe and Russ selected for bigger and longer bulls, which helped build their foundation cowherd. A good cow base has always been a major goal at Gartner-Denowh. With this in mind, they have selected for strong maternal traits over the years.

 

RITO 2100

Russ and grandsons check out his heritage foundation award.

Gartner-Denowh has also put a lot of emphasis on performance records. They were one of the founders of the Montana Beef Improvement Federation, which was a performance-testing program that was started before the Angus Herd Improvement Records. Then in the early seventies when the AHIR started they switched to that.

Gartner-Denowh's first production sale was in 1967 and was one of the first to sell yearling bulls by auction. They sold only yearling bulls at a time when most people still sold two-year-olds.  In 1974 Russ and his son Mickey bought out Joe but maintained the corporate name. In 1984 Russ's other son Paul also joined the corporation. From the start it has been a family run operation with Mickey and Paul's children making the fifth generation to live and work on the ranch.
Making the commercial man money has been a priority since day one. For this reason, Gartner-Denowh has often bought high gaining bulls off of test. In the early eighties they bought QAS Traveler 23-4 at the Treasure State Test. This bull has had a tremendous impact on many cowherds across the nation. They also bought DHD Traveler 6807 at the Midland Bull Test in 1987.

GDAR Rainmaker 340

QAS Traveler 23-4

Many other bulls have had an impact on Gartner-Denowh's herd. Many of the best females on the ranch trace back to such bulls as: Candolier Forever 376, Traveler 3173 GDAR, Rito 2100 GDAR, Rainmaker 340 GDAR, GDAR Executive 727, and Traveler 1148 GDAR.

Gartner-Denowh has concentrated on breeding the type of cattle that perform. They have done this by sticking to their program and paying close attention to what works. At Gartner-Denowh they let the cattle do the talking for them.

 

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