There be Highlands here!

Running a farm is expensive. Equipment costs are outrageous. Fuel is costly and is needed to run tractors, to plant corn and cut, rake and bale hay. Little by little we have invested in fencing, livestock shelters, water pipes and a pump near the animals and buying sheep and pigs.

As an English/Scottish style B&B, we thought our Suffolk and purebred Scottish Blackface sheep were great additions to the farm. For a few years we’ve wanted to add grass-fed beef to our operation. More specifically, Scottish Highland cattle. These beautiful, shaggy beasties are rugged and largely self-sufficient. They will eat scrub brush and less than ideal hay other animals would turn their nose up at. The animals grow slower and take longer to mature than other beef breeds. Their meat is leaner and healthier than other beef.

This fall we took the leap. We located a small herd for sale a reasonable distance from us. It took a month to find a trucker that was able to transport the cows for us. We bought three pregnant cows and a bull calf, which we plan on selling or trading for another bull.

The cows arrived at night, after dark. We had waited for these animals for several weeks and had desired them for a few years. We were excited that they were finally here. It was like the scene in the movie “Star Trek IV” where Scotty beams the whales and the water into the makeshift aquarium in the cargo bay of the stolen Klingon spaceship. He excitedly declares to Admiral Kirk and the bridge crew: “There be whales here!” With the same enthusiasm we thought “There be Highlands here!”

Horror of horror, only one minute later they were GONE! As they stepped off the cattle truck, Lucky, the very naughty farm dog, couldn’t resist chasing them. Immediately they spooked and burst through the barnyard’s barbed wire fence, which they could not see in the dark. We were sickened. Those poor animals were wandering the 600 acres of the farm at large, not familiar with the lay of the land. We prayed they wouldn’t breech the fences of the perimeter of the farm.

A neighbor had other cattle grazing on the farm as well. We hoped they would hang out with them, eat at their feed bunk and be sorted out when the other animals left for their own home after the pastures froze. Alas, they did not.

We drove around the farm, looking for them without success. Chris and his dad walked the fence lines, looking for signs of escape. We distributed fliers throughout the neighborhood. Finally, 10 days later we sighted them in a heavily wooded valley. Since there are numerous springs and a creek on the property they had water.

Deer hunting week we managed to contain them in a fenced corn field where they could eat corn stalks and be safe from gunfire. It proved impossible for the two of us to move them to a series of lanes and corrals leading to the barn. They just wouldn’t go through the right gate without circling back around us.

Now that we have snow cover, we are feeding hay bales, bringing them closer to the corrals and buildings each day. These are skittish Scottish!

But soon we will have them close enough that with the help of several other people we can get them through the series of pens and gates and finally to the safety of the small barn, where they were unloaded. From there we can also observe them from the house. The bull calf will be removed and share digs with the sheep until he is needed, leaving the cows to have their calves in the safety of the barn and barnyard this spring.

In the summer they will graze the ridgetop nature trail. We will continue to keep the female offspring of Flora, Skye and Heather, slowly growing our herd. Most of the bull calves will be destined to become gourmet beef on our dinner table or marketed directly to consumer.