

Registered scottish highland cattle for sale skin#
In the first few days, if they’re not cleaned off very well, flies lay eggs, eggs hatch into maggots, and the maggots will crawl in and out of their skin and irritate the calf like crazy.

One somewhat unique problem to Scottish Highlands is fly strike on newborn calves. “Some people consider the horns a drawback. Generally they’re very docile and friendly,” Adam said. It doesn’t take real sturdy facilities or heavy equipment to handle them. Many people are drawn to the Highlands because of their unique look, including the breed’s long horns, furry coat and smaller size. It has stayed consistent since early spring,” Adam said. People who maybe didn’t farm at all realized they wanted to supply their own beef and this, being a good start-up hobby breed, maybe drew them to it. Near as I can figure, people got a shock from store shortages on things and realizing how dependent they are on the system. When commercial cattle were going down, my sales went through the roof. “Sales really picked up in March and April. Within the past year, he has sold into 12 different states, from New York to Texas, Alabama to Montana, and a lot of sales in Missouri. This year we will likely sell around 200 head,” he added. “We have more demand than we can supply with the amount of ground we have, so I work with some other farms, buying from them and selling online,” he explained. He has a registered herd of about 10 head.Īdam sells his cattle mostly through his Circle AM Cattle Company website, which promotes his grass-finished beef and breeding stock. He has around 30 to 40 head of cattle in his herd, depending on what’s coming in and what’s going out. “We now have an open registry, so previously unregistered purebred Scottish Highland cattle can be registered into the Heartland Association, and we’re working on a DNA breed test to go along with that,” he said.

That’s how we got our herd,” Adam said.Īdam serves on the Heartland Highland Cattle Association Board of Directors. The spring auction is where we first got our start into them and then we met other breeders and bought some more. They also put one on in Parsons, Kan., in December. It started in Norwood, Mo., and now it’s in Lebanon in April every year. “The Heartland Highland Cattle Association puts on an auction every spring.

“My original plan was to buy Scottish Highland cows and cross commercial bulls onto them, but I fell in love with Scottish Highlands so much that we wound up switching out to mostly registered in our breeding herd,” Adam said. The Scottish Highland’s hardiness and small size were two major factors when Adam bought them. “I did a bunch of research to select the hardiest breed I could find because the Holsteins were the opposite of that,” he said. After he and Larissa married, he wanted to have cattle again. A lot of commercial cattle lose hardiness when you breed for specific traits,” Adam stated.Īdam grew up raising Holstein bottle calves. They haven’t been bred up for specific traits. They’re basically unchanged since they came over from Scotland hundreds of years ago. As for hardiness, “they don’t frequently get sick. So that makes them more profitable per acre,” he explained. The smaller size allows me to stock more per acre and right now they bring more than commercial cattle. They still mainly eat grass, but they’re good for cleaning up woods for that reason. “They will browse on brush and leaves that commercial cattle leave behind. Thriftiness, hardiness and small size are the appeal of Scottish Highlands for Adam. Besides utilizing their land, they also rent and “borrow” land in three other locations, all within a 15-minute drive. On their 28-acre farm near Marshfield, Mo., in Webster County, Adam and Larissa Michaud are raising two daughters, Kaylee (3) and Malea (1).They are also raising Scottish Highland cattle.Īdam said they bought the house in 2012 and the connecting property in 2014 and started raising Scottish Highland cattle in 2015. Adam Michaud appreciates the hardiness and smaller frame of Highland cattle
