Highland cattle??

[sanhestar]

Hello,

does anyone use highland cattle as oxen. I’ve read an older post stating that they tend to overheat in warmer weather – which would be quite obvious.

How is their working ethic, trainability?

Sabine

[Howie]

They train and work ok if it is raining or snowing but if the sun wants to shine they want to be in the shade.
The ones I had wouldn’t even come out of the shade to eat, they would wait until the sun went down.

[CharlyBonifaz]

Question: can their whool be used for anything? felt, padding, insulation….???
elke

[Anonymous]

These are Highland bull calves I am training. If they get too hot this summer I’ll give them a haircut 🙂

[sanhestar]

Hi,

thanks for the responses.

As I also can’t stand the heat of a sommer day at midday, I won’t mind them laying in the shadow, that’s what I do, too.

We don’t need them for heavy farm work. We have a small goat husbandry
and don’t want to buy a tractor for the heavier jobs (pulling the water wagon,
the transportable shelter, carrying the mobile fencing and fence equipment,
moving roundbales, getting firewood from the woods, these kind of jobs – no
plowing or pulling of heavy machinery).

I thought about clipping them, as well (I do this with one of our packgoats because the breed – Swiss Blackneck – has very long hair).

I don’t think that the hair can be used for felting or spinning: too smooth. But it should make good padding, f.e. for cushions, etc.

@David_Brown: could you tell me a bit more about their trainability? Do you need to start them younger than breeds that are less independent (milking breeds). What about starting a 1/2 year old that had limited contact to people till then? Can you tame them proper?

A friend of mine has a herd of highland cattle but he doesn’t interact with them much. The older animals where sozialised from the former owner but haven’t had training or sozialisation for years now. Would starting calves from a nice, quiet cow be much more difficult (in relation to proper socialised calves)?

[OldKat]

I know nothing of this breed, other than what little I have read of them. They wouldn’t survive past about April or May where I live; they would literally overheat and quit eating. I would say their suitability to your region would be a case of how closely the weather in your slice of the world resembles the weather where they originated … Scotland, if I remember correctly. Not sure that I would want the extra work of body clipping an animal that size, but hey if that sort of thing appeals to you so be it. BTW: If you want a good primer on adaptability of cattle to their environment, a must read is Man Must Measure by Dr. Jan Bonsma. I’ve read that little book maybe 10 or 12 times over the years, and I ALMOST understand everything he wrote.

I can say that every time I see a picture of Highland cattle I am reminded how much they look like pictures that I have seen of the Auroch. For those not familiar with the Auroch; they are supposedly the wild ancestor of most cattle, at least bos taurus cattle. The last were hunted out of existence maybe 3 or 4 hundred years ago, but sketches exist of what they looked like and to me the Highland cattle look a lot like them.

Have fun with your project…

[sanhestar]

Hi,

our climate is very different from Texas, I suppose 🙂

We live nearly 2000 ft. (600 meters?) high, in summer the temperature is seldom above 86°F – average is 78 to 83. The winters are cold and wet or cold and snow (often till April) – although we do feel the effects of global warming, too.

[OldKat]

@sanhestar 4370 wrote:

Hi,

our climate is very different from Texas, I suppose 🙂

We live nearly 2000 ft. (600 meters?) high, in summer the temperature is seldom above 86°F – average is 78 to 83. The winters are cold and wet or cold and snow (often till April) – although we do feel the effects of global warming, too.

Sounds like a good fit.

[Theloggerswife]

We have about 30 head of highland cattle on our 75 acre mini-farm here in Vermont. I have found them to be highly trainable to a halter and they seem to be a very slow laid back breed of cattle. We have a nine year old highlander that will let my 2 year old sit on her back. We will never get rich having this bred of cattle but they are great around kids are very cool looking….and tasty.

When it does heat up here in the summer they tend to head for the shade or they will wade into a pond or brook in the pasture. But honestly I am wanting to do the same thing….

[Howie]

sanhester

Where you are located and what you say you want to do with them the Highlands would serve you well.
Trainability they fit right in about the Holstien class.
The younger they are the easier it is to train any animal. The big thing with them being a little older is what they have learned from people around them.
If some one has chased them they know they can out run you.
If they have never been handled you shoud have no trouble with them.
The last pair that I trained were 8 and 9 months old when I got them and we had to drag them to the barn.

[Howie]

Theloggerswife

What are you waiting for??

[sanhestar]

Howie

I’m in Germany.

The cattle are handled very little and should I decide to take two calves from my friends herd I would make sure that they get “good” attention. But I can’t estimate (?) the effect the behaviour of the mother towards human will have on the calves. With the goats I know that the lambs will learn from the mothers and that if you have a shy mother you will get a shy lamb, no matter how early you’ve sozialized it. Hard work after weaning, but with persistence and food most of them come around (they are quite smaller, though).

[Theloggerswife]

Howie,

I am not sure what I am waiting for….growing up I showed Holsteins at the county fair through 4H. Then boys became more important! My husband had no interest in any animals on our farm when we bought it 8 years ago. My father gave me my first 4 highlanders for Mother’s Day. We now try to maintain a herd of 30 to 25. We have had more, but it become more then a hobby at that time. We usually sell 10+ calves each fall after we wean them. So now that you have me thinking about this I do have a really cool guy in town that would probably help me start a few calves…

Now that I am old (39) and married with two young kids I thought a team of Belgians would be really cool. So after my father died suddenly last year, I decided not to put off things that I wanted to try. So my team of Belgians arrived on the farm. I have ted hay with my team and have done cart rides. I would love to get them in the woods with my husband a few times and maybe he would warm up to the idea of draft horses!

[CharlyBonifaz]

off topic

I would love to get them in the woods with my husband a few times and maybe he would warm up to the idea of draft horses!

why is it so often I keep hearing this? why are always women the ones that get started, find out and try and then have to convince their husbands to give alternatives a thought……
elke

[Carl Russell]

CharlyBonifaz;4401 wrote:

off topic

why is it so often I keep hearing this? why are always women the ones that get started, find out and try and then have to convince their husbands to give alternatives a thought……
elke

Careful, Elke, I’ve scared away two women in the last twenty years because of my staunch commitment to draft animal power, and “alternative” livelihood. I even had to pick up the slack on a pair of Holsteins that turned out to give me nine good years in the woods (longer than the woman:eek:).

Carl

[Author]

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