General Information

If you are new to cattle that is ok!  We do have some tips for newbies.

• Research cattle nutrition/needs​​

  • Work with your local ag extension office for best practices in your geographical area​

• Grazing/Feeding Hay

  • Make sure that the area you are planning on for grazing cattle is sufficient with the proper nutrients for your cattle needs.  If feeding hay make sure to buy the highest quality of hay, and plan on supplementing lower quality hay with protein tubs or liquid feed.  My best advice is to ask local farmers in your area what they are feeding their cows, and where they buy their hay.  If you have a local feed store, see if they have an animal nutritionist that can help with any questions you may have, or just getting your program started.​

• Minerals/Protein/Salt

  • Each geographical area is different in what they need as far as minerals and protein are concerned.  We use chelated loose minerals for our breeding program, and liquid acuration as our protein supplement.​  In addition to loose minerals you will need either loose salt or salt blocks for your cattle.  

• Handeling Facilities

  • Do you have a place you can easily catch your cattle if the need to be handled? Do you have some way to confine your cattle in a head gate?  These two things are essential when you have cattle.  You never know when you may need to get something in to treat for whatever reason, and you want to be safe.​

• Veterinary Care

  • Do you have a vet that is willing to come out to your property you have an emergency? Have a vet established prior to purchasing your cows is very important.  Your vet also needs to know that these are "pets" and need to be treated so.  You need someone willing to treat your cows differently than they would a commercial cow/calf.  Once you establish a relationship with a vet and they know your expectations, introduce them to your new purchase soon after it arrives, so together you can have a plan of care and protocols to follow regarding that animals health and wellbeing.​

• Fencing

  • We often get asked what type of fencing to use.  We use 5-6 strand barbed wire, electric fences, woven wire fencing, and we even have areas that have vinyl fencing.  All of these work depending on what you are trying to contain.  The smaller the animal the tighter the fencing needs to be to prevent escape into the neighbors pasture or the road.​

What are your goals with when purchasing cattle?  Are you thinking about breeding?  Do you just want pets?  Do you want to show your cattle?  

• Why Highlands

  • I can tell you why we prefer Highlands, and Highland crosses.​ Our Highlands are very docile and just overall gorgeous animals.  In addition to having a gentle nature they are also naturally smaller than most commercial cows.  We are able to graze a larger number of Highlands on less acreage than we would be able to do with our larger commercial cows.

• Micro/Miniature

  • ​​Our program is centered around the pet and designer Highland market.  We do not breed for beef, so we prefer a smaller animal.   We also prefer our Highlands to fall in the micro miniature range to mid miniature; topline height (across the top of the back hips) 38" to 45".  We do occasionally raise smaller cows that fall in the micro category, 36" or below, but we prefer a little larger so that we know our heifers can easily be bred if bought for breeding purposes.  We also like our bulls to look like bulls and cows to look like cows when mature, not like steers or still look like a calf.

• Mini/Midsize

  • We do not offer any guarantees on mature heights.  We can accurately give you heights of parents and expect an average of the two, but genetics don't just come from the parents.  They can pop up from anywhere down the line.  We prefer our mini/midsize cows to be under 45" topline.  The majority of our cows fall into this category.  We like this size cow to put our chondro bulls on to produce a nice micro/mini calf or smaller mini/midsize calf.​

• Registered Stock

  • Most of our registered girls are 45" to 46" or under.  We do have a few that fall in the miniature category.  Our registered bulls are 45" topline and under.  We love our registered stock!  We have spent a lot of time researching and finding the perfect cows, not because of their size but because of their bloodlines.  We have cows with bloodlines dating back to the first herd books, cows with lines tied to the Queen of England and Balmoral castle, lines used to create the first herds in Australia, and lines with Grand Champion pedigrees.​

I was scared of the chondro gene when we first started breeding.  I did lots of research and I just couldn't find anything conclusive as to why I should or should not use it in our breeding program.  We bought our first chondro cow for embryos only, and fell in love with her.  We then bought our first chondro bull and decided to safely breed the gene into our program by using responsible breeding practices.  I absolutely love my chondro carriers!! The choice to use it is up to each individual, and my best advice is to seek out others who breed these carriers, and get their opinion versus someone who has no real knowledge of it, but has strong feelings regarding it.

We take a lot of pride in the quality of product we produce.  We want our customers to be set up for success by getting the best genetics, and the best cared for animal.  We spend a lot of money on nutrition for our cows, in addition to vaccinations, and veterinary care.  We also spend a great deal of time with our animals insuring that they go to their new homes well socialized and tame.  In addition to all of things we do for our animals we also give our very best to our buyers in terms of support for their new purchase, and we are forever a resource to those buyers for ALL of their needs.  We make ourselves available to answer questions, and we also try to share lots of content to our pages, so each buyer feels fully supported in their purchase from us.  

We often get asked about buying a bull or using AI to get cows/heifers bred.  Each operation is uniques and have their own reasons for why they operate in the way that they do.  I would ask yourself a few questions when trying to decided wether of not to buy a bull.  Do you plan on keeping the bull with the girls all year long or separating? Do you have a place to separate the bull?  Do you have adequate fencing to keep a bull in?  How big is your herd?  Does it makes sense to house and care for a bull versus using AI to get your cows bred.  

• Advantages of having a bull

  • One very obvious advantage of having a bull is getting all of your cows bred.  In order to do this you need to make sure to do yearly semen testing, and ask for semen test in addition to STD testing prior to buying any bull.​

  • Owning a bull may be cheaper than doing AI every year

• Advantages of AI

  • When using AI you can bring in some of the best genetics in the industry by using different bulls.​

  • You can control your calving window

  • You won't have the worry of keeping and maintaining a bull

  • You can choose the sex of your future calves 

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Embryos...