A dairy farmer all my life until 2005 when the decision was taken to sell the milking herd of 120 Holsteins and Jerseys and move into Highland cattle full time. We bought our first highland cows in 2002. We now have 90 breeding cows most are bred pure but we now put some of the lower end to the Blonde D'Aquitaine bull. We sell a lot of breeding heifers to fellow breeders among them a lot of first time buyers of highlands. All the steers are put through our own shop or sold to one of the major supermarkets at Christmas. I have judged at quite a lot of shows in the UK and in 2009 I judged the Highlands at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto Canada.

Best regards

 

I was raised on a dairy farm and upon moving onto my grandparents homestead, we quickly realized we needed something to keep the pastures from getting taken over by weed and sallies. We bought our first registered highland cattle in 1992. We went to a show clinic in 1994 and caught the 'show bug' and our family have been showing our cattle every year since then at various shows all over Canada and the U.S. including the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, Canada, the National Western Stock Show in Denver , CO and New York State Fair, amongst many others. Our children have 'grown up' so we have cut down the number of cattle shows we compete in to 3-4/yr. Of course along with that , we have cut down on the number of cattle we take to shows, as I am the 'lucky one' that gets to train and feed the cattle for shows (before and after work)

We try to keep our cattle numbers to about 25 max. (including cows, bulls, yearlings, steers and calves) as we both work off the farm and time and energy are limited. We have done quite a bit of artificial insemination since 1996, (every year on females too closely related to our bulls) with wonderful success, and have also flushed various cows for embryos for other countries including United States and Europe. We also had two bulls collected for semen at facilities, which was another interesting experience.
All of our cattle are halter broken (except the new calves), and all must have good dispositions.

I had the pleasure of judging a highland cattle show in Victoriaville, Que. along with my husband Rob which was a fun experience.
I feel very honoured to have been asked to be a part of the judges panel for the 2011 virtual show.

Paul and I have been breeding Highland cattle for the past 15 years, since we established our small fold on our rural property in Tauranga, in 1996. I had decided that if I was to put our 4 children through University, the financial pain would be eased considerably if I could afford my Highlands first!!, so our fold began with a breeding up programme of 2 C grade cattle and is now a combination of PX ( P5 ’s +) and Full blooded ( Purebred ) animals.
Although I work full time as a Senior teacher, I decided in 2006 to complete my Beef Judging Interbreed certificate through the Royal Agricultural society and so my great love of judging began. Currently I hold a Grade 1 Judging classification and it is with pride that I discuss the attributes and characteristics of such a wonderful breed with the public and breeders alike. I am always impressed with the enthusiasm and dedication that breeders have for the breed and each show season I have been thrilled to be in a position to promote the attributes of the breed publicly, from Royal shows to smaller local shows.
In 2010 I was elected on to the New Zealand Highland Cattle council and we are looking
extremely forward to hosting the New Zealand Southern Muster 4th International Highland
gathering in 2014, where we can share with international visitors our magnificent country and wonderful animals.