Breed Improvement

Elite and Premier
Dam Awards

Leaders and Elite Programs are a quick way to locate the best elite cows and sires that may be perfect for your breeding program. We provide this service to help develop the Angus breed overall.

Breed Development — Elite Programs

Canadian Angus Elite Cow: has a minimum of five calves, four of which must be registered, to determine her regularity of calving and ability to consistently produce calves with a superior weaning weight year after year, display early puberty, breeding and early calving, followed by regularity of calving and high performance offspring.

The Canadian Angus Elite Cow Report identifies superior cows in the Canadian Angus Herdbook.

Canadian Angus Elite Sire: has sired 10 or more Elite Cows or Premier Dams within the current listing. The Elite Sire Report recognizes and celebrates bulls in the Canadian Angus Herdbook that have consistently produced superior daughters.

To Find Elite Cows and/or Sires

Using the Animal Inquiry search option, based on a variety of criteria including colour, name, calving year, breeder location, you can search for the superior animal perfect for your breeding plan. Use the “select if” boxes to choose Elite Dam or Elite Sire. If you are an authorized user, you can access a list of your herd’s Elite Sires and Dams under the Animal Inquiry menu. Log on as an authorized user, then using the Animal Inquiry search option, select “animals under your ownership or your female inventory”. Click here for further instructions.

Canadian Elite Cow Criteria

  1. The cow must be enrolled in the Canadian Angus Performance Program
  2. The cow must have a calf with a 205-day weight recorded within the past 18 months
  3. The cow must have her first calf within 1,000 days of her date of birth
  4. The cow must maintain a regular calving interval, calving within 395 days consecutively
  5. The cow must have four consecutive natural born calves that are registered and have a weaning weight ratio that averages over 105
  6. The cow’s calf must be in a contemporary group with no less than 10 herd mates to determine the weaning weight ratio
  7. Once a cow is designated an Elite Cow, she is always an Elite Cow, however she will not be published in a year where she does not meet the above criteria

Once a cow is designated an Elite Cow, she is always an Elite Cow, however she will not be published on the Canadian Angus Elite List in any year that she did not qualify. For this reason, the list available to authorized users through Animal Inquiry may be different than the online report. The list available to online users is for your entire herd and will include cows that may not have made the most recent list.

2024 Elite Dam List

2024 Elite Sire List

Premier Dam Criteria

  1. The cow must be enrolled in the Canadian Angus Performance Program
  2. The cow must have a calf with a 205-day weight recorded within the past 18 months
  3. The cow must have her first calf within 1,000 days of her date of birth
  4. The cow must maintain a regular calving interval, calving within 395 days consecutively
  5. The cow must have four consecutive natural born calves that are registered
  6. The cow’s four calves must have Weaning Weight EPDs that are above breed average and have an accuracy of over 25%
  7. The cow must have at least two registered grand calves
  8. Once a cow is designated a Premier Cow, she is always an Premier Cow, however she will not be published in a year where she does not meet the above criteria

 2024 Premier Dam List

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Canadian - denotes animals with 4 or 5 generations of Canadian (no imported or foreign) animals in their pedigrees
Straight Canadian - denotes animals with 6 or more generations of Canadian (no imported or foreign) animals in their pedigrees