Highland Cattle Articles

Their critics call them" all hair and horn," but Highland cattle have been part of the Scottish landscape for centuries and have their origin deep in antiquity. Today, although they are flourishing in other quarters of the globe, their numbers in Scotland are falling. The writer discusses their future.

NOWADAYS we hardly ever see those Landseer-like paintings of Highland cattle that used to compete for attention on the walls of country pubs and hotels, alongside reproductions of The Stag At Bay, or give-away lithos of Prince Charlie and Queen Victoria, Bruce and Wallace, Rabbie and Sir Walter. Vole see few of these pictures about today simply because they have become unfashionable. So, too, have. Highland cattle, to a considerable extent. There have been so few registrations in the herd book of the Highland Cattle Society in recent years and one way or another trade has sometimes been so poor, that some lovers of the breed have expressed anxiety as to the future. It is a sobering thought that there may well be more pedigree or pure-bred Highlanders overseas today, notably in U.S.A., than in the breed's place of origin. I estimate that the number of pure-bred Highlanders in Scotland today does not exceed 1600.

The Highlander is a hill breed, and the pedigree Highlander's job is to produce the female stock from which in turn can be produced the famous cross-Highlander (with the Shorthorn), so popular with low-ground feeders and breeders. It is one of the unfortunate paradoxes of the current situation, that while the cross-Highlander is as much in demand as ever, the pedigree or pure-bred is in short supply, and more and more of the breeders show a disinclination to persevere with breeding. It is a fact that some apparently confirmed enthusiasts have in recent years allowed the pedigree status of their cattle to lapse, mainly because of poor prices received in the pedigree sales.

The Highlander labours under other handicaps. The notion has persisted throughout the years that it is a slow maturing breed. This is not meant to be the sort of article in which to examine such technicalities. But it is fair to quote Mr. Andrew Morrow, farms manager to Sir Alec Douglas Home who has a noteci fold of Highlanders on his estates. " If you pump food into the Highlanders in the same way as other breeds, they will do as well. " There is no doubt, too, that to a degree, the breed's great picturesque ness, which commends it so much to the layman, operates against it commercially. This is the era of hornless cattle. Most other homed breeds have introduced a polled section, or at least introduced a polling experiment. An effort to broach the subject at a meeting of Highland enthusiasts a few years ago met with short shrift. So the" all hair and horn" epithet can still be hurled by those who like to criticise. But I think there is, or was, one breeder experimenting quietly.

One of the arguments used against the idea of Highlanders without horns was that" they would not be Highlanders at all." Certainly it would be very difficult for anyone long accustomed to seeing Highlanders come out of the mists and the bracken, the sunshine and the heather, their great horns asweep and their dossans blowing in the wind, to visualise, let alone admire, an emasculated bevy of hornless wonders. These horns, of course, give an impression of enormous ferocity, which is quite false, for the Highlander, except when a cow is protecting her calf, is the most docile of breeds.

Highland cattle carry themselves with greater dignity, walk with more apparent purpose, than any other breed. They are the obvious aristocrats of the bovine world, still often referred to quite naturally in conversation as The Old Breed. The evidence of their antiquity, though indeterminate, seems irrefutable.

How old the breed really is, it is difficult to determine. The written word does not always help us, for although many writers have referred to the subject in books about cattle, or about the Highlands in general, *Forelocks (from Gaelic) or in pamphlets or articles, nothing really solid, devoted solely to the breed, has ever been put between the boards of a book. It is almost the only breed without a definitive history.

There is a very short historical sketch in the breed Herd Book which, among other points, refers to the theory that Highlanders may have some connection with the wild white cattle of Cadzow Park or Chillingham. Adam Ferguson of Woodhill, writing in the first number of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, many years ago, said: " I cannot but regard the West Highlanders as more genuine than any breed of cattle we possess in Scotland excepting maybe the small remnants of aborigines in the park of His Grace the Duke of Hamilton."

There were certainly cattle on the islands of the West many centuries ago. One of the Icelandic sagas tells us that Hakon, in 1263, sailing home to Orkney after his defeat at Largs, laid a tax of 300 cattle on the island of Islay. What is wrong in the assumption that there were cattle on most of the other isles, and that they, or their ancestors, were the progenitors of today's Highland types?

In the course of years there must have been some adulteration of the blood, especially in the hey-day of the" lifting," when such men as Rob Roy, Alan Stewart of Advor lich, or James Grant (Seamus nan Creach), James of the Plunder, were at the height of their notoriety. And there were others, much earlier. In 1579, in a raid on the small island of Gigha, Maclean of Duart, an ancestor of the present Chief Scout, appropriated 500 cattle.

James Cameron, a reliable authority, has pointed out that at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, it proved impossible to trace to their origins the Highland cattle of Glenlyon, ------- a strain which had been bred for long past generations by members of the Stewart and Menzies clans. In Glenlyon there was, too, a tradition that a race of white cattle had flourished there long before 1700. Cameron remarked that whether later white markings came from those cattle, or from" foreign" blood secured during the" lifting" times, could not be determined.

Two hundred years ago there was a noted fold of Highland cattle (you always talk about a fold of Highland cattle, never a herd), on Jura and, what is more to the point, tile laird had a market for them, for he held a draft sale. Then, too, in the 18th century, the McNeils of Colon say were keen improvers of the breed. And there were the Macdonalds of Balranald in South Uist. Balranald is probably the most revered of all the names of the early days of improvement.

From a large number of classifications Highland cattle soon evolved into two types, the West Highland and the mainland Highland, both smaller and shaggier than today's cattle. The evidence suggests that the West Highland, from the islands and the Argyll mainland, were much superior to those of the north mainland. Today, by common consent, there are only Highland cattle, though they are still often referred to as the West Highland, or even by the older name of kyloes.

There has always been some dubiety regarding the origin of this name kyloe. Some have argued that it is merely a corruption of the Gaelic word meaning Highland; others support the more romantic and popular theory that the cattle were so called because they used to be made to swim across the numerous kyles or straits that separate the islands from the mainland. And why wouldn't this be the right way of it ? Only this past summer five Highland beasts were swum across VIva Sound to Mull Show, where one of them took the championship.

The many travel writers who visited the Highlands in the 18th and 19th centuries all had something to say about the cruelties attendant upon the transport of cattle over the kyles. They were unanimous in condemning the method of tying the beasts, head to tail, in groups of six or seven, the rope keeping the jaws shut to prevent salt water from going down the throat and drowning the poor beast. But if the method was cruel it was effective. It was estimated that cattle could be got across Kyle Rhea from Skye, at the rate of 300 to 400 an hour.

Kyle Rhea was one of the great gathering points when the trysts were in their heyday. Indeed, it is from stories of the great trysts and the drove roads that we get some of the most convincing evidence that the Highlands at one time must have been blanketed by cattle. They came from almost every island, and joined up eventually with droves from all over the west and north mainlands.

Droving began early. Haldane, in that fascinating book, "The Drove Roads of Scotland" tells that droving existed as early as 1359 and continued until well into last century. In that era there were many famous drovers in England and Wales and Southern Scotland, men like Robert

McTurk (there is still a McTurk at the top of the cattle breeding industry), or like the Stately Williamsons from Aberdeenshire. Yet perhaps the most remarkable of them all were the Highland masters, Cameron of Corriechollie, in Lochaber, and MacKinnon of Corrichatachan, in Skye. The former began droving as a bare-footed boy, and when he died had ten farms in his hands, 40,000 sheep, and had rented so much land that he was able to rest his droves on his own ground, every evening on the way from the north to Falkirk.

There were many famous trysts, but Falkirk was the greatest, though those at Muir of Ord and Crieff were considerable. Falkirk was held three times a year and at its maximum could attract over 40,000 beasts, the greater proportion of these being from the West and North Highlands.

William McCombie, the saviour of the Aberdeen-Angus breed founded by his great contemporary, Hugh Watson, became an M.P. and landed proprietor, but as a youth persuaded his father to let him go dealing and droving. He has recorded that he had sometimes as many as 800 Highland cattle at Falkirk, and that Robert McTurk was known to purchase there as many as 1500 Highlanders for droving to England.

There are various estimates of the numbers coming from Skye, through Kyle Rhea, one Agricultural Account claiming as many as 5000-8000 annually. From Mull and nearby islands 2000 cattle annually used to be landed, first at Kerrera, from where they swam the narrow sound to the mainland. Early in the 19th century, the ferrykeeper at Port Askaig estimated that 2600 Highland cattle were ferried annually to the mainland, and on the basis of that figure, James Macdonald, the noted agricultural writer, computed that the cattle population of Islay was then 10,000. Islay is still one of the most valued strongholds of the breed.

The first Englishman to visit the islands in search of cattle was one Moorhouse from Yorkshire, in 1763. He went to Kingsburgh where, in the absence of her husband, Flora Macdonald welcomed him and made up for him the same bed in which Prince Charlie had slept 17 years earlier. Moorhouse proceeded to Raasay where he was met by Kingsburgh, and there they struck a bargain for Moorhouse to purchase 1000 head of cattle to be delivered free of expense at Falkirk.

In most old writings cattle are referred to as "black cattle." This brings us to the matter of colour. In the Gaelic, the crodh duM, the black cattle, are constantly referred to, and all these mentions indicate that the old Highland cattle were, with few exceptions, black. But this could be a wrong assumption, for in the old days the term" black cattle" was also used to distinguish between bovines and other livestock. All farm animals were cattle, oxen were black cattle.

But, in fact, great numbers of HigWand cattle were black. At one time it was the popular colour. Today it is unfashionable, for a black Highlander is reckoned to be a harder feeder and harder fleshed. I was at Oban Pedigree Sales a few years ago when two black bulls from Rothiemurchus were forward, the first of the colour for many years. They attracted attention, but they caused no sensation. A black heifer from Callander district was forward in a later year.

In the first Herd Book, which was retrospective, the number of blacks entered far outnumbered those of other colours. Today there are several colours-red, brindled, brown, yellow, dun, &c. There is no real white, though sometimes a calf crops up that is claimed as white. It invariably becomes a whitish dun. Curiously, when cattle figure in Highland mythology, as they often do, it is as fairy cattle, and these are always white.

Breeders of Highland cattle often incorporate the colour of an animal in the registered name: ruadh (red); dubh (black); buidhe (yellow); donn (brown). It has even been known for some breeders, who, like the majority of us, are unfortunately not terribly well up in the Gaelic, to register names not entirely suitable. Like giving lassies' names to bulls!

The milk of the Highlander is high in butterfat, and, in the old days when more butter and cheese were made than today, the cheese was often given an aromatic flavour by the use of various herbs, and even rose petals and leaves. In some parts of the North-Inverness-shire notably-great virtue was said to belong to cheese made by women when at the summer shielings with the cattle. The cheesemaker had to climb to the summit of some mountain where it was supposed the feet of quadruped had never trod, and there she gathered the herb called in the Gaelic mothan, which could be pointed out to her by any" wise person." This herb was given to the cows and from the milk cheese was made. Whoever ate that cheese was for ever after quite safe from every fairy agency. And when one considers that there. were fairies at the bottom of every Highland garden, this was no doubt a very satisfactory state of affairs.

When a cow gave little milk, or went dry, a witch was assumed to be at work. and the crofter wife, after taking as much milk from her beasts as possible, boiled it with certain herbs, and into the concoction she put flints. This had the effect of causing the witch great pain, and of course she came to the door seeking the relief that could be got only from touching the pot in which the milk had been boiled. Naturally, the housewife laid down her terms; the witch restored the flow of milk and was relieved of her pains.

There are Highland cattle in almost every zoo in this country and some abroad. Between the wars, at Berlin and Hamburg Zoos, the famous brothers, Hans and Lutz Heck, in a successful attempt to breed back to the aurochs, fierce cattle that once roamed the forests of Europe, crossed all sorts of breeds, and one of the earliest they used because of its purity, was the Highlander.

The story of how Highland cattle became established in Manchester's Heaton Park is worth telling, as indicative of the fact that the Highlander has more than mere picturesqueness to commend it. Manchester's superintendent of parks, R. C. Macmillan, is himself a Highland native. When he went to Manchester first and saw them burning the grass in the parks, because it saved the bother of cutting it, he thought it could be put to better use. As a lad working in Morven, he had loved the Highland cattle, and it occurred to him that 600-acre Heaton Park would be a fine setting for them; the animals would keep the grass down without disturbing the wild bird life that abounds, they would be a big attraction to the public, and they would, Mr. Macmillan was sure, pay their way.

It took Mr. Macmillan some time to persuade Manchester Corporation to his way of thinking, but eventually in 1954 he made his first purchases at Oban. I recall the interest aroused by his presence at the pedigree sales.

Now there are 40 breeding cattle at Heaton and at Wythenshaw near the airport. The Highlanders have done everything expected of them, and already Manchester has sold heifers to farmers in Cheshire and Yorks, and to the Welsh Mountain Zoo at Colwyn Bay. Most significant of all perhaps, three foundation. heifers have been sold to Middlesbrough Corporation, for the parks there. There are, says Mr. Macmillan, many local authorities who could put their parks to similar use. He may have started something worth while.

It is one of the paradoxes of the present situation that, although the cattle numbers are small today, they are perhaps more widespread than ever before.

They have established themselves in the tough Indian country of the Dakotas, in Montana, in Wisconsin, Washington, and Texas; over the border in British Columbia and in far north Alaska. At the other American extreme, there are some in the Argentine sheep-country of Patagonia, and one of the biggest and purest folds is thriving 11,000 feet up in the Peruvian Andes. There are some beneath the Southern Cross in Australia, and a thriving fold in that un typical Highland country, Denmark. Some years ago a few disappeared behind the Iron Curtain.

At home this sparse breed has spread from north to south. Her Majesty has a fold at Balmoral. There is a developing one at Tarland, I where the late Lady MacRobert I upon her death, left things in such a way that the Douneside enterprise must go on though the breed should fail everywhere else. An unlikely possibility perhaps, but undoubtedly a contingency which Lady MacRobert foresaw and took steps to forestall.

You will find HigWand cattle around Inverness, and among the reindeer in Rothiemurchus; at Blair Atholl, in Glen Lochay, in Appin and Morven; around Oban and Taynuilt, on most of the Islands, in Kintyre, high above Loch Fyne, on Loch Lomondside, in the Trossachs and around Perth; at Pollok near the heart of Glasgow, in Ayrshire and at Sundhope in Yarrow.

Over the border they have established themselves in Yorkshire, and, away down in the deep south, among the commuters, motorists seeing them grazing at Forest Row in Sussex have stopped to inquire if they were yaks.

Perhaps this sort of incident is symptomatic. The HigWand breed is often too exotic looking for its own good in today's ever-changing circumstances.

But the breed has not yet reached the vanishing Highlander stage. If for no other reasons than historical and aesthetic ones, let us hope it never does.

Perhaps the last words on the serious side of the subject should be those of Andrew Laing, one of today's greatest breed experts: "In a country such as ours, depending to such an extent on imported beef. . . it is surely economic folly to ignore the full productive capacity of thousands of acres of rough grazings and marginal land... carrying no cattle or inadequately stocked, when they could be carrying considerable numbers of Highland cattle and their crosses."

Proper Stubble Height for Forage Grasses
Steve Fransen, Ph.D., Forage Agronomist, WSU Cooperative Extension (fransen@wsu.edu)
From: Dairy Leader, Spring 2000

The cool-season grasses, orchard grass, tall fescue and perennial ryegrass dominate and sustain our region with highly productive, nutrient rich forage. Most forage in the region is directly used by dairy cows and other livestock grazing pastures or mechanically harvested as silage. Some hay is produced each season for on-farm use or off-farm sales. A common concern in using forages is controlling the residual grazing stubble or cutting height and what happens if recommendations are not followed.

Stubble height is simply the remaining height of the grass after it has been grazed or cut. In pastures, livestock graze at uneven stubble heights so some areas are naturally taller than other areas giving a 'patchy' look. But in silage and hay fields the stubble or cutting height is determined by the height of the cutter bar. Usually this height is about the same over the entire field. It may be more eye appealing to see an even cut grass field than a patchy pasture but it is the minimum heights of stubble that are most important.

When thinking about grass stubble heights several important components need to be considered. A group of grass carbohydrates called fructosans, more recently named fructans, are mostly stored in the stubble or base of grass plants. Fructans are highly water-soluble sugars, which are remobilized (moved from) from the stubble to provide quick energy to grass leaves and remaining tillers after cutting. These sugars provide the basis for rapid grass regrowth. If the cutter bar is set too low then too much stubble is removed which reduces sugar concentration, weakening the grass. Think of the stubble as the grass bank account. If you keep withdrawing from that account, without time for refilling, little will remain. The stubble of grass plants does not belong to you; it belongs only to the grass-you can't have it!

Research has shown forage root systems will stop growing after the plant has been cut or grazed. How quickly it takes for the roots to start growing again is highly dependent upon how much sugar is in the bank account at harvest. So, if you're cutting orchard grass at 2.5 cm (1") you're robbing the bank account!

Orchard grass should not be cut less than 7.5 cm (3") if the stand is healthy and strong. If the stand is weak then the cutter bar needs to be raised to 10 cm (4") until the plants recover.

Tall fescue is about the same as orchard grass for minimum stubble heights and perennial ryegrass should not be cut lower than 5 cm (2"). How do you know if you're exceeding these minimum stubble heights? Get out a tape measure and check the height in 10 different places once the machine has made a pass in the field. Or, take about 40 stubble height measurements, at random locations within the pasture, and average these to determine average stubble height.

Why should you check stubble height? As mentioned earlier the stubble is the grasses largest bank account for fructans. But sugars are not alone in promoting rapid grass regrowth. More recent research has shown that protein (nitrogen) is remobilized in the stubble and helps provide elements to the regrowth tissue. Some sources also suggest nitrate in the remaining stubble will be higher than if the plant is not cut. The story of grass regrowth is bigger than simply managing for stubble sugars. If you closely look at the grass fields that have been cut closer than the minimum stubble heights I recommended you will often see lots of bare soil; prime areas for weeds to invade. You'll also see the grass is very thin with few tillers (stems and leaves), and delayed regrowth for a week or more. Ground, from productive grass fields in this region, should be completely covered with forage regrowth within 10 to 14 days after harvest. If it is not, then likely the cutter bar was too low or we left the livestock grazing too long in the pasture (or perhaps drought stress in the summer). So remember, the bottom 7.5 to 10 cm of the grass doesn't belong to you but to the grass. It is the bank account. The account contains not only fructan sugars but also nitrogen, which is needed for rapid above-ground forage and root regrowth.

The evidence of harvesting or grazing too low is in the fields. Grasses are responding to our mismanagement but we need to understand what they are telling us and then take corrective action. After the grass stubble height is controlled you will be surprised to see higher yields, denser stands, longer lived stands, less weed problems, more rapid regrowth and more robust grass plants than before. Be patient. It will take the plants some time to respond (perhaps a full year) to the new stubble height management but you will reap the rewards for making the change.

So, just what is a show anyway? I believe it really comes down to just another form of marketing our breed.

I know that our members hold a variety of opinions about “showing.” Is it a search for the “best” animals representing our breed? Well, many of us have heard (and probably used the phrase too) the rationalization that “it’s just one person’s opinion on that day.” Yes, premiums may be earned, but for most that financial return doesn’t come close to covering the farm expenses, let alone providing a reward for the time spent in hot smelly barns answering repetitive questions. For others, there is a sort of reward in the camaraderie that develops among the fellow exhibitors slogging through four or five long boring days in a dusty barn. Of course, another reward can be the “bragging rights” that come from any competition.

In my opinion the real reward comes through exhibiting your animals to those folks interested (both those active in the breed and those developing a new interest) in our great breed. If this event takes place in your locale it is more likely to benefit you financially, which is the prime reason the NWHCA went to some effort to establish a new show.

Enumclaw is a bedroom community to the east of Seattle, WA with a large number of small farms locally. The King County Fair is a five-day event in late July that draws from all over the Puget Sound area.

Like most county fairs across the country, KCF has been faced with declining attendance in recent years. The Fair manager was faced with trying to increase attendance while living with a declining budget. In 2003 three of us had exhibited at the Fair (six animals, including one from a Junior member who was also exhibiting in 4-H) in the Open Beef category. There was a smattering of other beef breeds, but with the premiums being fairly low there wasn’t much interest among breeders.

The NWHCA approached the KCF about the possibility of putting on a Highland show. From the 2003 feedback the Fair manager knew that our breed drew a lot of interest and was pretty receptive. Over the winter I attended several meetings among the livestock Superintendents discussing space, timing and budgets. The Fair wanted more animals and a reduced total premium amount and when I “promised” an increased beef animal count via an AHCA point show the other beef breeds dropped out.

To assist the Fair manager in establishing his firm budget (thereby reducing his risk) we all agreed to accept fixed dollar amounts for the premium pools and he allowed us to set the distribution method for the available money. Our choice for the Highland show was to award points from class placements for 1^st through 5^th place (5 for a 1^stdown to 1 for a 5^th ), divide the total points into the premium pool, and the Fair would distribute the money to each farm, based on their accumulated points, as they normally did. The premium pool was better than I originally expected, the Fair paid for the judge, and even chipped in for a piper on show day so we couldn’t have asked for more.

What was the result of all this? In July we had five exhibitors showing 25 animals, in what I believe was a very successful first year show.

The Fair tried some innovative marketing this year by dropping the admission fees and making the first day fee only $1. This resulted huge crowds on Wednesday and increased overall attendance (close to 50,000). The Fair gets a good chunk of the vendor revenues, so management was happy about actually improving their finances, and they had lots of positive comments about the Highlands. Since the Fair wants us back and the exhibitors want to come back, I guess it was pretty much a win-win situation all around.

The main result – many new folks were exposed to and gained knowledge of our breed and the breeders all made contacts. I know of one animal sale that has already happened as a result of the “show.” The local marketing opportunity that a show offers to breeders is real, and don’t forget those bragging rights.

Have you seen these long haired and horned animals that look like cows and wondered what they really are? Well, they really are a beef breed of cattle called “Highlands” or perhaps you may have heard of them as the Scottish Highland breed.

Highlands are an ancient beef breed that has lived and thrived for centuries in the harsh climes of Scotland. Highlands are considered the oldest registered cattle breed on record, with the first official herdbook established in the United Kingdom in 1884.

Highlands were first imported into the United States and Canada around 100 years ago. Initially, they went primarily to the harsh mid-West ranges, and were often used for crossing with other breeds and the beef calves were sold into the commercial market. The breed is quite adaptable to a variety of climates and Highland herds are now found in 48 of our 50 states and across the Provinces of Canada.

Highlands are thickset and primitive looking animals with long sweeping horns and hair protecting the eyes. Despite all this, many people consider them “cute” and the calves are quite adorable with their shaggy hair protecting them from the harshest weather. Many people fall in love with the appearance of the breed and consider them “pets” and they are ideal in small farm situations because they do not need a barn for protection. Despite their horns and fierce appearance, Highlands are normally quite docile and calm, including bulls, and are frequently handled by children.

An attribute that makes the breed popular with their owners is longevity. Many cows have continued producing calves to the age of 18 or 19 and could probably continue beyond except their owners decide to let them “retire” to leisure. Like all cattle, longevity is more than fertility and the Highlands are known for good feet and legs that contribute to their extended productive life. Udders are generally smaller than other breeds because of lower milk production, but its richness allows the calves to grow rapidly.

Another desirable attribute is their rather light birth weight, with the average calf weighing well under 70 pounds. This lower birth weight results in less birthing problems, especially important with first calf heifers, and a high percentage of live births. The mothers may be protective for the first few days but are normally quite mellow after that. They are well equipped to defend their young, and will often work together, to defeat range predators. The low birth weight attribute makes these animals ideal for using Highland bulls on young first calf heifers of other breeds. Semen from quality bulls is becoming readily available for ranchers to use in AI programs in commercial herds.

While most cattle require good pasture, and feed supplements or expensive grains to achieve and maintain good body condition, Highlands are very efficient at converting ordinary grass and can thrive and support their calves without supplemental feed. The breed has the well-deserved reputation of being a browser because of the environment they evolved from and they will often spend time munching available brush in addition to the normal grass forage diet.

Evolving in a harsh environment has resulted this breed being insulated by a thick skin and a long double hair coat (a soft undercoat and a coarser long hair layer to shed the rain), rather than the thick layer of fat other breeds need to retain body heat in the winter. This reduced back-fat results in less wastage at processing time and purebred Highlands and Highland crossbreeds grade out very well against other breeds in carcass competitions.

The best reason for raising Highlands is the superb healthy meat they produce. Laboratory tests in the United States and in England have shown that grass finished Highland beef is substantially lower in fat and cholesterol, yet is well marbled, when compared to the products found in your supermarkets.

The volume of Highland beef being produced today is not large enough to have an established national branded market. The American Highland Cattle Association (AHCA) has established voluntary production standards under its Quality Highland Beef label. This program is a contractual obligation that requires the producers to certify to certain standards in the raising and finishing of the animals they market using the QHB logo.

Most breeders sell to family and friends by word of mouth, and through farm websites on the internet. Highlands are mostly marketed as a natural, farm raised, product where the consumer knows how the animals were raised and harvested. In this market, farm raised and harvested Highland beef commands a significant premium over other beef breeds and high customer loyalty. A few breeders across the country have developed viable and profitable markets for their beef with fine restaurants and high-end resorts, with their beef selling for a premium price.

The integrity of the purebred Highland breed in the U.S. is maintained through standards administered by AHCA and there is no “breeding up” of the breed. There are several regional associations across the country and they actively promote the breed. The regional associations have established a number of shows across the country for displaying their breeding stock in conformation competitions where the breed is judged to normal beef standards. The largest show is at the National Western Stock Show where the breed regularly displays over 200 animals. There are also many county Fairs and Highland Games festivals where the breed is displayed and these are great venues for local breeders to market their animals and other products.

The adaptability of the breed has resulted in the breed being widely distributed and concentrations can be found in South America, Australia and New Zealand, a number of European countries, and there is a significant concentration of animals in Canada.

The 2^nd International Gathering was held in Sheridan, WY in June of this year. The event coupled AHCA’s annual national convention with a gathering of breeders from across the globe. There were devoted breeders from eight other countries attending and sharing the progress of the breed in their countries. Of course, Scotland and England continue to have many breeders and the meat is highly sought after in their markets. The Royal family maintains a herd at Balmoral Castle and it is the dinner beef of choice for the Royal family.

You can find more about the history and attributes of the Highland breed at the AHCA website www.highlandcattleusa.org. The site has a complete member list to facilitate finding a breeder near you and has a downloadable Highland Breeders Guide with discussions on many aspects of the breed. If you would like more information on the breed, contact AHCA at (303) 292-9102 or send a note to info@highlandcattleusa.org.

If the weather folks are anywhere close to accurate we are in for another year of “abnormal” weather across the country and another dry season is predicted for some areas. We are as much grass farmers as we are livestock producers, so what are the implications of a drought?

A rule of thumb is that the amount of moisture received is a good predictor of the amount of grass that will grow. Sure, if the moisture is spread out some it will help, but the deep soil moisture will be less and those grass roots go deep! A 20% reduction in rainfall pretty much guarantees a 20% reduction in grass.

Faced with the prospect of less grass what would be your plan? To me the options are pretty clear; less days of consumption (get rid of some of my beasts or find supplemental pasture?), overgraze the pastures I’ve been working hard to improve, supplement the critters’ feed with something, or some combination of the above.

Now might be a good time to survey your area for unused pastures. A lot will depend if this supplemental feed is a business for someone (around here $15-20/mo for cow and calf is a common grazing fee) or a friend where poor fences and water availability might be less costly but create bigger headaches.

I’ve been working to improve pastures by rotation, fertilizing and adding lime so I do not want to overgraze. Keeping a grass length sufficient to have good re-growth this fall and lush spring pasture next year is vitally important for the long term, so I need to be especially diligent as I rotate this summer.

One of the techniques I read about is early weaning the calves. This will help the cows begin to rebuild body score, thus protecting next year’s calf crop. What do I do to keep this year’s calves growing at a good rate? High quality feed must be available to keep up their growth rate. The young ones will need extra protein and energy. Certainly, alfalfa hay can provide the protein but without access to carbohydrates their growth won’t be optimal. Grain can be used (yes, I know grain will decrease the digestibility of the grass) and a few pounds can make a big improvement. Oh, you’re a big proponent of grass fed beef? Well, there may be some tough choices you need to make.

Another consideration of drought pastures is that our browser breed will be out there working on the trees and shrubs - not much energy, but full tummies. The big risk is that those toxic plants they avoid in normal times (such as bracken fern and tansy in my area) will get eaten and that is BAD!

Parasites are an area where you can really help yourself. Keep those animals free of the worms, lice and flies that siphon off an animal’s energy and your scarce feed will go further. I would also much rather sit on the deck watching the Spring calves bounce around the pasture than think about zig zagging around with a backpack sprayer, but controlling weed “parasites” is important too. The amount of water that weeds use is huge and if I can reduce those users the grass will do better and in the long run a healthy soil structure will have less weeds and feed more animals. I know I can increase carrying capacity through good soil management much easier than I can add pounds through selective genetics. If increased pounds is your goal, become a better grass farmer!

This is not intended to be “the” solution for you, but rather a look at some options. Your locale and animal mix may offer unique solutions for you. Those solutions probably mean spending some money, but nothing’s too good for our animals, is it??

Protecting animal fertility, managing a good growth rate on the younger animals, and developing better feed resources, and at the same time controlling costs sounds pretty straight forward. Why would anyone think that raising cattle is tough?

All sellers must answer the question of “how much to charge for their products” unless they are in a pure commodity market and Highland breeders selling herd stock are no exception. Alternately, the question is always how much to pay for those products, especially that prize cow you’d like to add to your herd. Everyone wants a ‘good’ deal but we certainly don’t want to leave anything on the table at the conclusion of negotiations!

I recently ran across a very well bred heifer that was a beauty, had a great pedigree and was carrying a calf that would also improve the genetics of my group. So, you say, what’s the problem? Well, the asking price was way above anything I had paid in the past, but…. I sure did like her!

Negotiations ensued, and resulted in a modest price reduction that made me feel a little better but she was still “out there” relative to the cost basis of the rest of my girls.

Now began a period of personal rationalization. What is she really worth to me? I laid out a schedule of expected returns based upon what I have been receiving for steers, registered bull calves and registered heifers and that I might have an open year. I assumed that I’d get a 50/50 mix of males and females and I know what it costs me to feed the cow each year. Guess what the answer was – the cash flows resulting from a string of her calves, selling at my current prices, was very positive when compared to the purchase price and she actually looked like a bargain.

Still looking for a reason to avoid purchasing her, I decided to use another tool. Since I had a business career and an education in Accounting and Finance, how about applying a discounted cash flow analysis (this sounds complicated but is simply based on the theory that a dollar received today is worth more than a dollar received tomorrow) to prove the price was too high for me? Well, it didn’t seem to matter what discount rate I applied, cost of feed, and even assuming that open year, the proposed purchase price came out a positive investment decision.

There are a number of books describing the technique and providing discount tables, and there are web-based tools you can use to run an analysis of your own potential decisions. I used the tool at http://www.unb.ca/web/transpo/mynet/npv.htm to do the analysis of my purchase decision. You simply put in your expected net annual cash flows and an appropriate interest rate that you could earn by investing elsewhere (long term stock market forecasts are 8%, so I’ve used that). Microsoft Excel also has a NPV feature.

The simple example below shows the purchase of a bred cow and subsequently 3 bull calves that are sold as beef steers, 2 heifers sold as registered weanlings, and the cow and her heifer sold as a package at the end of year 6. Cash turns positive in year 4 and there has been $2900 received in excess of the purchase and maintenance costs of this cow over the 6 year period. Applying a discount rate of 8% in the DCF model reduces the return to a still positive NPV =$1,477 so, on an economic basis this animal, with these assumptions, would appear to be a very good investment.

In fact, by doing a couple of iterations with the example I can see that I should be indifferent in the economic sense if I pay as much as $3,500 (that’s where NPV approaches zero) for this heifer or even significantly more if I expect to get calves over a longer period than the 6 years in the example.

Setting up a simple worksheet like this may help you clarify your investment decisions when you consider your own expectations for an investment return, your estimated costs and your expected revenues and see how those items affect your economic return. Certainly, there are more than economic factors in the decisions we make, but starting out with data may make those decisions easier to rationalize because, after all, we like to think we are running a business.

Date	Purchase	Feed/DVM	Revenue	Net Cash Cumulative
2004	-2000	-300		-2300/-2300
2005		-300	500	200/-2100
2006		-300	1500	1200/-900
2007		-300	500	200/-700
2008		-300	1500	1200/500
2009		-300	500	200/700
2010		-300	2500	2200/2900

So, after all the agonizing and looking at my personal economic assumptions I was able to rationalize that the cow goddess did not need to live forever, nor deliver all show heifers to be economically viable. Sure, there are the normal risks of illness, breech, mastitis, or bad luck, but those are no greater with this animal than with any other purchase decision --- I had to have her!!

So, if you have lasted this far into my ramble, how might this affect your own economic decisions? I suggest a take away from this article is a little thought on what level to price your products. Perhaps a bigger issue is to think about how you educate your prospective customers that there is intrinsic value in the prices you’re asking, especially for heifers and cows?

For my own operation I have prepared a simple handout that shows expected revenues from a heifer/cow such as shown in the example above. I think that it is a powerful demonstration that buying my heifers at my price is a bargain to the purchaser. It is simple and easily understood, merely showing a stream of revenue from a mix of bull and heifer calves less expenses such as breeding fees and feed costs. This example, even at a quick glance shows that it does not take many calves to turn that heifer/cow into a “free” asset.

Give such an analysis a try. It may have a place in your own Marketing efforts and may also help you with your decisions on pricing your animals. Of course there is also the danger is that you may rationalize paying a higher price for someone else’s animals because it is a sound investment for you!

As I read the Ron Torell/Ken Conley article in my December issue of the Cascade Cattleman I was reminded that what we intuitively “know” may not necessarily be what we put into daily practice. Specifically, I’m referring to the different nutritional requirements of our cows as they proceed through the annual cycle that hopefully results in a robust and healthy calf crop.

Now, I know that our beloved Highlands deserve their reputation for being easy keepers, but I decided to do a little surfing on cattle nutrition. There is some literature available, and not all of it is consistent. The main point I gleaned from this search is that we all need to remember that there is a biological priority for nutrients. This hierarchy of the priorities is: 1) maintenance, 2) growth, 3) milk production, and 4) reproduction.

Obviously, not all the above factors apply to our non-breeding animals, but this rank ordering got me to thinking about my specific group of animals. I am feeding weanlings, yearlings, steers, bred 2YO heifers, mature cows, and a mature bull. I have been feeding on the “average” for the group, namely X lbs/animal. This seems to work OK, but may also explain why one of my cows does not breed back on schedule. She looks fine, but maybe she’s not be getting enough nutrients to allow her to get to priority number 4 (reproduction) at the same time as the rest.

One of the conclusions that comes through is the differing needs for bred 2YO heifers. They are not fully grown and have the additional nutritional demands of a fetus while they themselves are still growing. At the birth of their calves, the nutritional needs increase even more because of milk production. The literature states that timely rebreeding is a common problem, simply because reproduction is the lowest nutritional priority.

The Torell/Conley article was focused on the last trimester of pregnancy. From the priorities, this is the second most demanding period for the cow. The authors state, “what you have done for the cow nutritionally up to this point to preserve body condition and what you do (or fail to do) now will affect calf survival, postpartum interval and breed back.” They also point out that at the start of this trimester the fetus is relatively small. 70% of the fetal growth will occur in the last 94 days of pregnancy. So thinking again of the growing heifer that has to use even more nutrients for the rapid growth of the fetus, and then later the still greater nutritional demands of milk production, it’s easy to see that this new mother may not have enough conditioning to support timely rebreeding.

If this isn’t enough to think about, there’s the issue of higher nutritional requirements due to cold weather and mud. Here on the left side of the Cascades it may not be too much of an issue but, for breeders east of the Cascades, extra nutrition may be required simply because of mother nature’s Winter whims.

My conclusion is that ideally I would separate the animals into several peer groups and tailor feeding to the demands of each group. If, like me, you don’t have the physical capability for this kind of specialization, you will probably still feed based on the “average.” What I am going to do is make sure that my feeding more accurately addresses the needs of the animals with the most nutritional demands rather than the average. This may mean that some get more rations than ‘needed’ by conventional wisdom, but will better ensure a healthy, full calf crop and timely rebreeding.

So….. , we have a better idea about nutritional requirements for different classes of animals, but the question still remains – how much to feed?

Common Cents Livestock Feeding (by Michael J. Mehren, Phd) is a collection of published articles focused mostly on beef cattle in the Northwest. I think this is a book everyone should consider adding to their library ($12.95 postpaid). Mehren discusses the quality of different forages and how supplements might fit individual circumstances. Mehren does a good job of demonstrating that the protein content of some feeds will not satisfy the cow’s nutrition requirements because they physically cannot eat enough of that foodstuff. He also points out that supplementing with grain may actually interfere with the digestion of some forages, thus the grain adds no benefit. Another good information source, available via the Web, is the Beef Cow Nutrition Guide (circular C-735) from Kansas State University.

Using the data from the various sources I reached the conclusion that the mixture I am feeding (alfalfa plus local grass 20+ lbs total) provides adequate nutrition in terms of quantity, good nutrition in terms of protein, and adequate TDN (Total Digestible Nutrient). However, because in the first 4 months of lactation protein requirements increase 40% and TDN by 33%, this ration may actually be short nutritionally for the cows when they calve!

The authors point out that there is great variability in the nutritional value of grasses. We are all used to our cows/calves looking good on Spring grass but the lactating moms may actually be short of some nutrients and supplementation may be required in this period to increase the chances of breeding back within 90 days (remember the priorities!).

An area all the authors stress is the need for mineral supplements. We all hear about Selenium deficiency, but Calcium and Phosphorus deficiencies are common too. Discuss the subject of mineral supplements with your vet!

By reading this you have surely reached the accurate conclusion that I am not a nutritionist and, to be sure, the subject of nutrition for individual animals is neither Art nor Science - there are many variables and more than one way to feed for healthy animals. As a result of my reading I now know a bit more about the subject of nutrition and hope that by making some feeding adjustments, in the period of the third trimester through the first 4 months of lactation, that my group will be more productive as a result. As to that cow of mine that’s slow to rebreed maybe I have a nutritional solution, but then again, maybe the freezer is a better solution.

A final note on feeding – If you are interested being in attendance for the birth of your calves, there are several studies showing when you feed during the last 1-2 weeks of gestation can influence the timing. The largest study showed that when cows were fed once daily at dusk, 85% of the calves were born between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm.

As we ready our animals for the show season, most of us want them to be in “show shape.” Of course, each of has our own image of what “show shape” looks like and we also have our own methods to achieve it. Sometimes there are animals in the ring that are in fact roly-poly and also sometimes a judge will knock them down. A couple of years ago, at the German National Show, I saw a judge that consistently lowered animals in his ranking for being “too fat” and explained that fact to the exhibitors. In his words to me after the show he was “looking for meat rather than fat.”

It was after that German Show that I encountered an article in the Stockman Grass Farmer that was titled “Grain Fattening Seedstock Bulls Lowers Their Fertility.” I was a little skeptical of this position, until I read the University research report cited in the article.

For those of you interested in reading directly from the academic article, go to http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/75/4/1048.pdf I will also summarize what I gleaned from the literature below.

In the Lethbridge Research Center study, the seminal quality of all the bulls decreased as body condition increased. Bulls that were grown to maturity on 100% forage diets had 13% greater efficiency of sperm production, 19% more daily sperm production and 52% greater sperm reserves than the bulls that were grain fed. The Canadian study involved purebred Angus, Angus/Simmental crosses and Hereford/Simmental crosses. The simple punch line seems to be that the fatter the animal the less motile the sperm.

A previous Canadian study involving only Continental breeds had found a similar decline in fertility as the backfat increases. Perhaps our Highlands with lower back-fat don’t exhibit this effect, but probably a “fat” bull would have some decreased motility because of the way fat is deposited and the sperm is affected.

Fat tends to deposit in the neck of the scrotum. The scrotum, with its blood supply, is designed as a thermoregulatory mechanism to maintain the testes at an ideal temperature. The excess fat then acts as an insulator inhibiting the ability to dissipate heat and thus making the sperm unhappy.

One of the scary statements offered by the researchers is that the fat cells formed are permanent. Then, subsequent attempts to put a bull into breeding condition may result in more fat being deposited in the scrotum and a further decline in sperm production and motility.

It also turned out in their testing that a successful BSE (Breeding Soundness Evaluation) is not a guarantee of fertility because the semen tested may have been produced before the fat deposition. The article cites the study “we have seen instances where bulls were able to pass a semen test but were found to be completely shooting blanks a few days later.”

The logical question then comes up about whether we are harming our little guys by putting them in one of the Bull Tests? From reading about the rations fed at our bull tests and observing the yearlings as they complete the test period I have not seen the “fat” animals described in the research papers, so I am not at all concerned about sending my bull to one of our Bull Tests. The feeds given at the Bull Tests are formulated for growth and are not the heavy grain use that may be used to get animals into “show shape.”

The “over conditioning” term that judges may use certainly also applies to some of the females that are shown. There are a number of stories of reduced fertility in these females and that would be due to a deposited fat layer surrounding the reproductive organs. It is clear that as buyers we need to be careful when buying a bull or a heifer that they are indeed fertile, and knowing more about their show history may help. Unfortunately, there seems to be less black and white in terms of conditioning knowledge and much more gray in terms of perceptions when looking into this topic of “too fat.”

Now….. Just what is too fat? I think the best way to evaluate our cattle has to be by using the Body Condition Scoring criteria. Watching the animals move will also indicate when there is a heavy layer of fat rather than meat.

What then are the implications for you and I as we condition our animals for shows and displays? It seems to me that we need to tread the fine line- fat on one side and “show shape” on the other. A discussion of conditioning is located at http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/exten/cc-corner/careofyearlingbulls.html.

Because of some questions by members at the Spring Meeting I thought I would discuss some of the Leadership roles in our NWHCA organization and in AHCA.

The Northwest Highland Cattle Association’s (NWHCA) purpose and elected positions are spelled out in our By-Laws. NWHCA is a not for profit Corporation chartered in the State of Washington. The By-Laws state that the members will elect six Board members, two at each Spring Meeting for three-year terms, resulting in the six Board members having staggered terms. There are no term limit restrictions defined for these Board seats.

Each year the Board selects its Officers for the coming year. Some positions may be combined but spelled out are the President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. We have had at times, as, we currently do, a combined Secretary/Treasurer position. The Board is tasked to meet two other times during the year, once at a show that has been labeled “Regional” and once during the Winter. Members wishing to attend the Regional and/or Winter Board meeting are welcome.

The Board is the governing body and makes the decisions on budget, advertising, dues to be collected, the Fold editor, content of the website, the location of the Regional show, and any rules that are not at odds with the NWHCA By-Laws. If you would like to have your very own copy of the NWHCA By-Laws contact Sharon Howard, our current Secretary/Treasurer, and she’ll be happy to send you one.

The American Highland Cattle Association (AHCA) is a not for profit Corporation chartered in the State of South Dakota. The primary function of AHCA is to maintain breed integrity and a Herdbook documenting recognized pedigreed animals. AHCA By-Laws provide for nine at-large Board members elected by the membership. Three are elected at each national meeting, which is held in conjunction with the National Convention, resulting in the nine having staggered three-year terms. The By-Laws provide that after two consecutive elected terms a director is not eligible for re-election for one year.

The main difference between the NWHCA and AHCA leadership structure is that the AHCA members vote on and select a President and Vice-President, in addition to the three directors, at the annual meeting.

The AHCA Board also includes the Past President and nine directors selected by the individual Regions (at the pleasure of our NWHCA Board, I have been serving as the Northwest Regional Director). The regional directors’ terms shall not exceed six consecutive years and is consistent with the elected director’s term limits. Thus, at any time the AHCA Board may have nineteen directors. The annual Directory included in each Fall issue of the Bagpipe includes the organization’s Rules and Regulations and if you wish to obtain a copy of the By-Laws give the office in Denver a call.

In addition to the June National Convention the AHCA Board has been meeting in January at the NWSS. At the recent Board meeting in Madison the Board decided to reformulate and consolidate the numerous Committees and to begin meeting two additional times during the year by a conference call to try to accelerate some of the actions planned.

The Highland Cattle Foundation (HCF) is a separate corporation set up as an entity that allows contributions to be treated as a charitable contribution on your Federal, and possibly State taxes and provides an opportunity for HCF inclusion in family estate planning. The HCF Board is voted on by AHCA and is composed of three directors plus Ginnah Moses.

The primary goal of the HCF is to provide scholarships for Junior members (our Jacob Larson received an award this year) and to fund research in areas that might benefit our members with hard data for marketing the breed. In addition to bequests by members there is an annual auction at the national convention where proceeds benefit the HCF.

We, the Highland breeders across America, represent a broad constituency – from pasture ornaments, to show animals to beef producers. Many of us believe that the national organization needs to be proactive and supportive of the regional organizations by providing marketing and advertising support. AHCA needs to accomplish research to get data on our breed as beef animals and it needs to begin influencing judges on what attributes are important to our breed.

I am optimistic that the changes and initiatives contemplated will someday soon result in an organization that does more than just record pedigrees and will recognize the diverse needs of its members.

Think about running for regional and national Board seats so you can participate in the leadership of NWHCA and AHCA. It has been a very satisfying experience for me.