“And there’s another reason they are called Highlands. It took me some time to learn if their whiskers fit, they fit,” she said when it comes to getting through fencing. “We sometimes sell just the hollow horns for black powder purposes, or wine,” said McMillan. There doesn’t seem to be much demand for the hides, though. To purchase the head and horns of a large bull runs around $2,000 before you even take it to the taxidermist for a shoulder mount. These animals have become very popular in the art community with stuffed toys, original, metal and poster art, and many steak restaurants will find room to have a head-mount in their establishment. A bull’s horns often grow forward or even slightly downward and have a much wider base, whereas a cow’s horns face upward and are longer and finer at the tip. They develop a distinctive ring on their horns for each year of life.īesides size, the most noticeable difference between the sexes is their horns. Telling the age of a Highlander is the same as a bighorn sheep. This is because in winter, the cattle were kept in open shelters made of stone called folds to protect them from the weather at night. The property supports 127 head of Highlanders, which is called a fold rather than a herd.
ARE HIGHLAND CATTLE FRIENDLY DRIVER
“These cattle do not disperse when you drive through them in a field so a driver needs to be prepared that they will need to maneuver around many of them, especially if they are laying down,” Congdon said. Really! They’d crawl up and sit in your lap if you could support 1,000 pounds,” he howls. Impressive, hey? Plus, these cows are as friendly as dogs. Mother Highlands are known for often breeding beyond the age of 18 and raising 15 or more calves in their lifetime. The MacIntosh and Aberdeen Angus, which we know as black and red today, don’t live as long nor do they produce as many years as Highlanders do. “No, Angus cattle are a derivative of the Highlander. Gray, silver white, red, brindle, orange and black.”Ĭongdon had Red Angus and a few Highlanders about 20 years ago but moved entirely to the Scottish Highlander. “These are smaller than Angus or Herefords so they run anywhere from 1,000 to 1,400 for bulls, and cows around 800-900 pounds.
She has known the owner of the ranch, Wally Congdon, since 1977 when he was her debate coach at Hellgate High School in Missoula.Īs with most livestock operations, McMillan has a Battlefield PhD in her type of cattle. The manager of the ranch is Tracie McMillan who has been there for eight years. That’s where the largest breeding "fold" lives in Big Sky country. This is a hardy breed, able to withstand the intemperate conditions in Scotland, and they also thrive near the Beavertail State Park just east of Clinton, Montana. The late Queen had a herd of Highland cattle and it is rumored to be the only kind of beef she would eat. It originated in the Scottish Highlands and the Western Islands of Scotland, and both males and female have long horns and a long shaggy coat.
The Highland cow is the oldest registered breed of livestock in the world and is a Scottish class of rustic beef cattle.
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