Bow K Ranch :: Olathe, Colorado :: Producing Gelbvieh cows that excel in maternal qualities

Bow K Ranch is family-owned and operated by Dave and Dawn Bowman and their son and his wife, Andrew and Sarah Bowman. The ranch is located near Olathe, Colorado (a one and one-half hour drive from Grand Junction, Colorado). Dave and Dawn have been running Gelbvieh cattle since 1983 and currently run 110 head of Gelbvieh and Black Angus, along with Gelbvieh x Black Angus and Gelbvieh x Red Angus (referred to as Balancers).

The emphasis at Bow K Ranch is to produce moderate-sized (1,100 to 1,300 pound) cows that excel in maternal qualities — birth weight, calving ease, good udders, and adequate milk — not to mention their docility. (See Female Page). Our foundation is built on 29 years of AI breeding and quiet cattle handling methods.

This breeding season (for the 2013 calf crop), we have used the following AI sires:

Red Gelbvieh: Independence which is a calving ease bull with good all-around EPDs and Winthrop which is a calving ease bull with adequate growth and good carcass traits.
Black Gelbvieh: Mr. Bow K 904W— calving ease and good all-around EPDs. Lazy TV Sam U451 calving ease, thickness, good all-around EPDs with added weaning weight. Black Impact, a homozygous black, homozygous polled bull with calving ease and good EPDs. Mr. Bow K 120Y a heterozygous black, homozygous polled bull with excellent calving ease and growth EPDs.
Black Balancer®: Mr. Bow K 922W a Black Balancer® out of In Focus with good calving ease numbers and carcass traits was used as a clean-up bull after A.I.
Red Angus: Gravity — Carcass and calving ease. Similar to Cherokee Canyon who we used for years.
Black Angus: Hoover Dam is a thick calving ease bull with good carcass and maternal traits, and excellent EPDs for docility. Mr. Bow K New Standard W904 a long-bodied bull (calving ease) was used primarily for clean- up on our Angus cows.



Most of our cattle are run above Gunnison, Colorado in the summer and fall at an altitude of 8,500 to 10,000 feet. These must be functional cattle with good feet and legs and are definitely not pampered.