Highland

There were two kinds. The Kyloe of the Hebrides and the Western Isles was small and often black, and took its name from being swum across the kyles, the straits, to reach mainland markets. The mainland cattle were larger and ran red or brown. The modern breed comes from both.

The trade that shaped them was droving. In 1723 more than 30,000 Scottish cattle were sold into England, walked south to the trysts at Crieff and Falkirk and bought by English drovers to fatten. An animal that could walk that far on what it found along the way was the animal that got selected.

The Highland Cattle Society formed in 1884 and published the first volume of the herd book in 1885. The breed was improved through the 1800s by selection alone, with no crossbreeding, which is unusual among British breeds and part of why the type is so consistent.

Canada imported the first animals in the 1880s. The first record of Highlands in the United States is from the late 1890s, and imports continued through the 1900s into the northern states. The American Scotch Highland Breeders' Association formed in 1948 and renamed itself the American Highland Cattle Association in 1992. It is based in Brighton, Colorado, and holds the US herd book.

A medium-sized animal. The Livestock Conservancy puts cows at 900 to 1,300 lb and bulls at 1,500 to 2,000 lb; the American registry gives 900 to 1,200 and 1,500 to 1,800 and says forage decides where in the range an animal lands. Cows stand 35 to 42 inches at the shoulder, bulls 42 to 47.

The outer coat is the longest of any cattle breed, over a downy undercoat. Red-brown is the usual colour, about 60 percent of the population; around 22 percent are yellow, and the rest are dun, brindle, silver, white or black, which was the original colour of the breed. Colour is a fact about two genes, not about quality, and the registry accepts all of them.

Both sexes are horned. A cow's horns sweep out and up and are finer; a bull's run more horizontal and forward, and heavier. They use them to knock down brush, to scratch, and against predators.

They live longer than most cattle, up to 20 years. A single calf is the norm, twins are not unknown, and heifers reach sexual maturity at around 18 months.

Docile is the word every source uses. They do not stress easily and are workable despite the horns. Highland herds have a clear dominance order set by age and sex, older over younger and bulls over cows, and that structure is what keeps aggression low.

They are devoted, protective mothers. Calving is easy; calves are small at birth, 60 to 70 lb.

The horns are real. Gates, chutes and feeders all need to allow for them, and so does anyone handling them.

Beef, first. Because the animal is insulated by hair rather than by a layer of fat under the skin, the meat is leaner than most beef. The Scottish society and the American registry both claim lower fat and cholesterol and higher protein and iron than other beef, and it marbles well for a lean carcass. It finishes slowly.

The common commercial pattern is the Highland cow, not the Highland steer: a Highland suckler cow put to a Shorthorn or Limousin bull raises a crossbred calf with her hardiness and mothering on a carcass shape the trade pays more for.

Beyond beef they are working animals on marginal ground: conservation grazing, brush clearance and range management, where the job is to eat what nothing else will. And they are the animal people drive out to see, which is why agritourism operations keep them.

Cold is not the problem. They have been described as almost as cold-tolerant as caribou and reindeer, and they will winter outside on poor mountain land with high rainfall and bitter winds. Heat is the problem: they are much less heat-tolerant than Zebu-type cattle. They do adapt, shedding earlier in spring and growing less hair in a warm climate, but the further south you are, the more the coat works against them.

Forage: they convert poor grazing efficiently and take rough forage other cattle walk past, so they suit low stocking rates on rough ground.

Fencing and handling gear sized for horns. And time: they finish slowly next to a commercial beef breed, so budget for it.

The Highland has been a conservation success. It graduated from The Livestock Conservancy's Conservation Priority List in 2019, once the United States was registering more than 1,000 animals a year and the global population had passed 25,000. The 2022 DAD-IS count was just over 40,000 head across 23 countries, with the largest herds in France and Finland; the UK registered 3,161 breeding cows in 2021.

Graduated is not the same as common. Registered purebreds are still a small population next to any commercial breed, and the herd book is what keeps it one breed rather than a look.

Ask for the registration. The American Highland Cattle Association holds the US herd book, states that cattle of questionable ancestry are never accepted into it, and runs a public animal inquiry where you can look a registration number up before you bid. A Highland-type animal without papers may be a fine cow; it is not a registered Highland, and it will not sell as one later.

Know what you are buying the cow for. If it is a purebred program, papers and parentage matter. If it is a suckler cow to cross, her mothering and her hardiness are the point and the bull's breed decides the calf.

Age is not the objection it is in other breeds. Cows commonly produce into their late teens, and the Scottish society records cows breeding past 18 having borne fifteen calves. A ten-year-old Highland cow can have years left.

Budget for the horns and the time: handling gear, gates and feeders sized for horns, and a slow finish next to a commercial breed.

Check the climate. The coat that makes them cheap to winter makes summer harder the further south you go.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.