WELCOME TO GARDINER PRIME ANGUS

About Us

Patrick and Ada Gardiner started their Angus herd with five bred heifers purchased from the J & B Angus herd of Bob and Hollyce Neumeyer in 1994. We give thanks for all of the wonderful friends we have made over the years as we build our herd and realize that what Angus customers really want in a bull or heifer is a healthy, productive animal that will maximize the value of the herd. That means to us that the customer is first looking for trust. He or she wants ease in calving, performance, good disposition and of course, carcass quality in the cowherd. After all, this is a business, and quality means profit.

Our breeding philosophy concentrates on targeting genetics through the use and analysis of epds (expected progeny differences,) together with DNA testing which provides even greater accuracy.

Our goal is to produce high-quality, balanced genetics for commercial and purebred breeders. We strive to breed performance and carcass traits into our cattle as much as possible Without giving up the “must haves” – fertility, function, phenotype, and calving-ease. By using the best sires in the industry in combination with our quality female base and top-end donors, we will continue to advance our breeding program for predictable genetics with guaranteed customer satisfaction being our highest priority.

We welcome private treaty sales. Come visit us at the ranch, or feel free to give us a call and discuss what we can do to your herd.

Pat Gardiner: 208 267-3194
Glenn Ensz: 208 597-0617

Greetings to everyone, hoping your winter was good and your moisture plentiful enough to support your needs for the coming year!

It’s hard not be enthused about the cattle business right now, and you already know that…

We’d like to point out some things we’re excited about regarding the genetics we’re offering in this year’s sale; there’s a lot of numbers to wade through in a sale catalog already, so not everything makes it in there, but there’s more information that won’t make it in there that we feel strongly about. Although much is covered in the catalog footnotes, we are happy to explain any details before or at the sale. We also felt a newsletter would be a good way to share our philosophy.

You will note in many catalogs, including ours this year, a little box with the designation, “$M,” which is an abbreviation for $Maternal, one of the multi-trait $Value indexes that are calculated by the Angus Association. Before $M, the only index that focused on the cow-calf producer was $Weaning, and it was useful, but had and still has some limitations. These limitations are addressed with $M, as an article by the Association delineates:

“$W strictly focuses on four traits — birth weight, weaning weight, maternal milk and mature cow size — and $M replaces birth weight with calving ease. Additionally, $M includes traits for heifer pregnancy, foot conformation and docility, while still incorporating weaning weight, maternal milk and mature cow size. (Kelli Retallick-Riley, Angus Genetics Inc. President, October 2, 2024, emphasis mine)

In real-world, easily understood terms, this means that utilizing the $M index will help you sort through bulls that would have very similar numbers for birth weight, growth rate, and milk, but may have dramatically different EPD’s for Docility and Foot Quality, to name a couple of important ones. In our experience, the bulls that have a complete, no-holes EPD profile, will possess very high rankings for $M, and particularly, those bulls with poor Foot quality EPD’s will drop noticeably for $M -even if they possess excellent growth and Milk EPD’s. Also, cattle that possess higher predictions for Mature Weight and Mature Height, will also have a lower $M, even if it appears from the growth and Milk EPDs that they ought to rank more highly. What we think is exciting, is that even before the advent of the $M index, we were selecting for the traits that it is comprised of, and our bulls selling in our sale this year are an excellent reflection of that, their average $M is $90, which would rank in the top 5% of the breed!

The Association is planning to release some additional EPD’s this March, which will incorporate some Longevity and some Teat and Udder data into the $M ranking, and from what we see of the preliminary EPD’s for those traits on the sires we’ve used, we are anticipating that they will improve even further for $Maternal from where they already are. Stay tuned! And please call or text if any of this raises questions for you, we maybe don’t have all the answers on these things, but we’re sure willing to talk it over! Glenn Ensz, 208-597-0617

2025 HERD SIRES

Introducing our latest herd sire, Connealy Clarify 26L!

In the Connealy Angus 2022 spring sale, we were drawn to a particular embryo flush by Connealy Clarity out of a super producing donor dam; as a flush they were consistently good from end to end, with great phenotype combining with great genotype, and all of them boasting exceptional carcass EPD’s, particularly for Ribeye area. From that powerful group our pick was the bull we renamed Connealy Clarify. As an individual, he scanned an amazing Adj. ribeye area of 17" at an Adj. scan weight of 1103 lbs. Typically with that RE/cwt scan ratio, the individual will tend to be a bit shallow-bodied and hard-sided, but Clarify is deep from end to end with an overall soft look, with great feet and legs.

We feel very fortunate to have obtained this individual, he ties together much of what we’ve come to consider the most important traits in breeding Angus cattle into a dynamic, compelling package. He sires enough growth, and elite carcass traits as well, to earn high rankings for the $Weaning, $Grid and $Beef indexes. But probably more important are the multitude of other traits he excels for, from large scrotal and high Heifer Pregnancy, to strong rankings for Functional Longevity, and Teat and Udder, and excellent Claw and Angle for great Foot EPD’s. These combine with his predictions for moderate mature size to give him a top 1% ranking for $Maternal! With all that, it’s understandable that his all-purpose index, $Combined, would rank in the top 2% of the breed.

Add to that a deep-bodied, long-hipped, expressively muscled phenotype, and we think he brings a genetic package that’s hard to match! His first sons were well accepted in last year’s bull sale, and it looks as though his daughters will be fantastic!