My two Highlands had calves.....

They are so sweet, Kim! Congratulations!

They are absolutely adorable!

they are so cute they look like little teddy bears

Adorable

I just love the Scottish Highlands,,, ever since I was a little girl... my grandmother had a painting on her wall, an oil painting of red Scottish Highland cattle drinking by a creek in what looked to be the Scottish Highland area... painted by my great grandmother who was a very talented artist...

So I have always had an infatuation with Highland cattle.

I have often considered raising a few head... we have a cattle ranch, so we have the room, but the heat here in southern OK really worries me and not sure how they would cope with the heat and humidity here.

In Australia it was the heat that always was a major factor in my never getting into the Highlands... the cattle here stand in a pond up to their bellies in the heat of summer (and last year the ponds turned into mud holes due to the drought)... and these cattle are slick coated cattle, so I can only imagine a poor Highland in the heat of summer. If I lived in a colder climate, I would have them for sure... they are just adorable!!!

Sheepdog Think you will find the Scottish Highland or Galloway thrive in pretty much any climate. It gets very hot and humid in Ontario and my herd of Galloway do just fine. Just go and treat yourself to some

Royd Wood said:

Sheepdog Think you will find the Scottish Highland or Galloway thrive in pretty much any climate. It gets very hot and humid in Ontario and my herd of Galloway do just fine. Just go and treat yourself to some

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Oh I have been tempted, but still it really does worry me... and we had over 100 days of over 100F last summer with a number of days reaching between 110 & 115... so that is the part that really worries me. Everyone suffered in that heat, the horses included..... poor sheep... glad I have hair sheep!!

But I have wondered, if the Highlands would shed off their hair a lot more in the summer... and I have always wanted show cattle... if I got into the Highlands, so they would be handled and quiet all the time... so clipping the hair off has also crossed my mind, though sometimes that can do more harm than good.... People advise not to clip some certain long haired dog breeds because their hair acts like an insulator... but I have clipped off a couple of our longer haired working border collies and they have done fine... especially working in the heat....

In Australia I have sometimes had a dog that got so over heated whilst working (some just don't know when to stop) and when you are busy gathering cattle and you finally notice that one of the dogs is overheating, it is usually too late, so put them in the closest water trough/pond and then carry them back home over the saddle and leave them in the cool until they recover. But this heat here has nothing on what we experienced in Australia, guess because it is humid and we got hot weather but it was a dry heat.

So you really think that they would be okay in the sort of heat we get in the south????

You know this forum is very dangerous I am getting more and more interested in different animals and breeds since I have been on here.... its kind of addicting My very patient and tolerant fiance is going to ban me from this forum before too long

Sheepdog said:

Oh I have been tempted, but still it really does worry me... and we had over 100 days of over 100F last summer with a number of days reaching between 110 & 115... so that is the part that really worries me. Everyone suffered in that heat, the horses included..... poor sheep... glad I have hair sheep!!

But I have wondered, if the Highlands would shed off their hair a lot more in the summer... and I have always wanted show cattle... if I got into the Highlands, so they would be handled and quiet all the time... so clipping the hair off has also crossed my mind, though sometimes that can do more harm than good.... So you really think that they would be okay in the sort of heat we get in the south????

You know this forum is very dangerous I am getting more and more interested in different animals and breeds since I have been on here.... its kind of addicting My very patient and tolerant fiance is going to ban me from this forum before too long

Click to expand...

I'm sure they would be fine as long as there is shade available. They would prefer it to be cooler but so do most animals and humans (esp me as I hate the humidity - give me dry heat any day)
My cattle shade in wooded areas during the day and do shed alot of hair in early summer but new born calves are the ones to keep an eye on, thats one of the reasons we calve in March as a summer calf will struggle with heat and flies.
There was a fantastic turn out of Highlands at this years Royal Winter Fair in Toronto - they were a real crowd pleaser and having them next to the Galloways in the show barns was great

Kim - How are your calves now, no longer grey ???? newborn Dun Galloways are born grey too

Congratulations, i like gingers calf!