Our Coos

"Coo": a Highland Cow.
"Fold": a herd of Highland Coos.

We are registered at the American Highland Cattle Association. Our membership number is 10377. Using that and the herdbook search feature, you can see the ancestry of our registered animals.

Photo dated 9/16/2012:

Duncan (#49805) is out lovable bull and the Pride of our farm! Visitors are amazed our how calm Duncan is and that he likes to be rubbed down virtually anytime. He often comes by and just "hangs out" with Kevin when he is working on the farm. That said, like any animal, they are most comfortable around those they know.

Duncan and son Larry, 10-1-2012

Photo dated 11/25/2012:

Nicole (#47841) is our second most lovable animal. She has had a somewhat tough life: suffering some environment damage as calf that causes her horns to be asymmetric, and suffering through pink-eye last summer. She gave birth to Tullia on November 24th, 2012 (Kevin's birthday!) and is shown here with Tullia a day later.

The four sisters never allow Nicole in their circle. She is best friends with Duncan, even when not in heat. We often find the two of them hanging together apart from the sisters. Nicole has gotten to be a bit skittish since her episode with pink-eye but still looks to be hand fed. We just can't rub her down like we use to be able to.

Nicole and Tullia - 4-13-2013

Photo dated 1/20/11:

From left to right: Sarah (#48387), Rose (#48386), Dawn (#48388), and Shauna (#48385). All purchased from Thistle Hill Farms in 2010 - our first Highlands.

Heifers in the photo, all have been promoted to "dam" status as of the fall of 2012 when each provided us with a calf. Shauna won that race, but cheated - she insisted on spending the spring with a neighbors herd of black Angus and provided us a Angus/Highland cross-bred this fall. Duncan sired the other three from this lot.

Photo dated 10/1/12:

Dawn (#48338) all grown up. Very friendly, loves to eat cattle cubes from our hands. Will occasionally accept a chin scratch, she is 2nd in command to Sarah amongst the girls. (It took awhile, and was interesting to watch develop, but Duncan leads the pack now.)

Photo dated 9/16/12:

Dawn with her son Moe (farm name - born on 8/18/2012)
Moe and his half-brother Curly love to hang together. If we lived full time on our farm I'd raise the pair as oxen. As is, both will likely be castrated this summer and raised for the meat market.

Photo dated 9/16/12:

Sarah (#48387) with son Larry (farm name - born on 8/25/12). Sarah is the lead of the females within the coo.
Larry is our best looking bull calf from the 2012 season. We hope someone will buy him or trade us for a solid Scottish looking heifer.

Sarah and son Larry - 4-13-2013

Photo dated 9/3/12:

Rose (#48386) with son Curly farm name - born 9/2/12). Rose is the shyest of our dams and always has been. She has gotten a bit braver, and will approach within a yard or so, but has yet to eat from our hands. Originally also the smallest, she is of equal size to her three sisters now. Curly is named from his ears, which exhibit expression of the "crop ear" gene. This is a dominate gene that is cosmetic only - some like it (tales of "elf ear cattle"), some don't (its banned in registered cattle in Australia for political reasons).

Photo dated 8/4/12:

Shauna (#48385) with her newborn daughter Nochka (farm name - born 8/3/12). Shauna insisted in spending time with a neighbors Black Angus herd, pushing her way through (2) barb wire fences and walking about a mile around and back to the waiting bulls. As such Nochka is half Black Angus, half Highland. Its amusing to watch her genes battle for dominance - currently she has an Angus face but highland hair growing from his side. Not sure what we are going to do with Nochka - since she is unrelated to Duncan, we may breed her and use her offspring for our table.

Nochka at 5 months old (4-28-13) and still genetically very confused.

Photo dated 2/16/13:

Annie and Ally (with Tullia to the right) were added to our fold mid-February. We purchased the two of them, plus an older cow Channey (shown below) from Virgil and Susie Gordon.

Channey pleasantly surprised us with a calf on 4/26/13.