Our Story

RANGE PROVEN. COW POWERED.
FOCUSED ON THE FUTURE.

E L K Angus is located in Buffalo, WY, where we run and develop our cattle in the sagebrush and rocks in the hills at the base of the Bighorn Mountains. We understand there is a delicate balance between utility and performance, and we know that the right intersection between the two lies with maternal power.  We carefully select our mother cows, replacement females, herd sires, and AI bulls to achieve the perfect range-ready animal that results in a calf that hits the ground light and easily and pushes the scales in the fall – every year. In our country, your cattle must hold up; Good feet and legs, longevity, fertility, and docility are all central to our program.

The reality is that the beef market is changing with growing packer pressure, the advent of protein substitutes, and ever-increasing squeezed margins for the cowman.  We believe that returning to the fundamentals of what makes the Angus breed great – mothering ability, carcass qualities, docility, and the likes – while layering in the best genetics decades of intentional, selective breeding has offered will help keep ranching, agriculture, and production alive and well for future generations.  Our commitment at E L K Angus is to bring the best cow families together to help the cowman profit at sale time for today and tomorrow’s future.

Meet the Owners

E L K Angus is owned and operated by Tyler, Megan, and Zane Scales.

Tyler grew up on a small commercial cattle operation in Western Colorado. His passion for genetics and stewardship led him to jump into the registered cattle business in November 2015. Megan graduated from Colorado State University with degrees in Business Management and Equine Science, where she was a member of the 2006 World Champion Horse Judging Team.  While a horsewoman from the start, her love for balanced, functionally correct animals has translated right into high-quality cattle.

Zane is the ranch foreman (mostly, he just yells at the cows and tells mom and dad no).

Why ELK?

Elk are a common sight every fall at the ranch in Buffalo, WY. And as exciting as seeing a few hundred head out with the beef cows in the hay meadows, that’s not why we call ourselves E L K Angus. Our brand, [reverse E] L K, comes from an old family story where Tyler’s down-the-line great-uncle worked the Y-Y ranch in the Southwest. Another ranch hand was rustling cattle by changing the Y-Y to [reverse E] L K, and when the government discovered this, those cattle were offered for sale where Tyler’s distant uncle purchased his first herd. We re-invented the brand a few generations with our registered Angus operation.