Terri Barr, Barrking Hill Farm, Exeter, ON

The Highland is unusually healthy and hearty and will survive on roughage and poor grazing including brush, if necessary, under climate conditions where most of our popular, commercial breeds would suffer. Highlands are noted for their browsing ability and therefore are well suited to farmsteads where there is an excess of poor pasture or rough terrain with meager grazing.

Highland beef is slow-maturing making it a lean, well-marbled premium beef with low fat and cholesterol levels whilst remaining rich in protein and flavour, criteria increasingly demanded by today’s market. Highland beef often commands a premium price over other breeds due to its succulent fine flavour and healthy eating appeal.

Highland cattle represent one of the best ways to preserve our landscape. The cattle are experts at improving unproductive land and maintaining a balance of plants and they will thrive on rough fodder enabling less competitive grasses and flowers to flourish.

Over the last couple of years, I have heard of a large variety of diets used by Highland breeders. They include strictly grass and hay diets, to pasturing with an input of cereal grains, or barley, wheat or corn silage, to the more bizarre peas, turnips or the leftover hop residue from a brewery. Most breeders do some experimenting and come up with a formula that works best for them.

In general, a wholesome diet is necessary for good health and growth. Here the Highland has a distinct advantage, as its needs are simple and economical. During the summer months they should have an ample supply of grazing and access to fresh water. In winter, good hay, straw, green feed or silage can be fed with no need for extensive feeding of concentrates. They will require access to minerals to ensure vitamin levels are maintained. Cows with calves at foot can be offered supplementary feed rations such as oats, barley or corn in adverse weather conditions.

Ghislain Falardeau, a 20 year Highland breeder in Quebec has experimented with a variety of grain inputs and wrote the following information in a previous issue of our breed magazine, The Kyloe Cry:

“The ration of food must be abundant and rich in proteins and energy. Sometimes, it is necessary to add cereal grains to the ration and the quantities vary according to the objectives of your farm. At first in the beginning, during our own experiments, we gave only two to three pounds of cereal grains per animal per day. The results were interesting but we pushed a little further with our tests and came from there increased that to give up to nine or ten pounds per day. The tenderness and the profit were largely improved by that.

The nature type of food also influences the taste of the meat. I noticed that the oats, even if it does not produce growth results of as spectacular as corn, gives a really delicious taste. Our ration of cereal grains is thus made up almost exclusively of oats.”

On our own farm, Barrking Hill, we pasture our animals in the spring, summer and fall and feed hay in the winter but we also add a helping of oats to the animals we’re raising for our beef market (2 five gallon pails for 5 animals per day). We have discovered that Highlands digest oats, regardless of whether they’re rolled or whole better then barley, wheat or corn.

The following is from an article written by Dr. Karen Schwartskopf-Genswein of Alberta Agriculture, Food & Rural Development Division:

“The key to improving management of grazing cattle is to simply observe their grazing behaviour and understand the cues they provide.

Cattle graze by encircling grass and other plants with their tongue and breaking it of with a sharp sideways movement of the head. For this reason, they cannot graze grass that is less than 1 cm in height. Consequently, rotating cattle to new pasture frequently is important. One clue a producer can use as an indication of when to move their animals to a new strip of pasture, is the substantial slowing of the grazing rate.

In addition to pasture quality other factors such as weather, predators, and insects can greatly affect grazing. Cattle prefer to graze during the daylight hours with the longest and most continuous periods occurring shortly before sunrise and near dusk. Two shorter periods of grazing usually occur in the mid-morning and early afternoon. In very hot weather, cattle will seek shade instead of grazing during the hottest part of the day. Similarly, heavy rain, wind and snow can cause cattle to seek shelter instead of forage. During these times the rate of grazing may increase at night so that cattle can compensate for lower grazing rates during the day.

Disturbances by man and predators, such as coyotes, usually decreases the rate of grazing because cattle spend more time watching out for potential danger and trying to move away from it. Insect attacks can also reduce grazing rates.

Cattle are herd species, meaning that they do best when they are part of a group. However, when pasture quality is low and good forage is not readily available competition between individuals can occur. This means that the dominant individuals in the group get access to the best forage while less dominant individuals do not.”

In some cases, the grazing of poisonous plants can lead to death. Many poisonous species of plants are native to range and pasture lands. These plants are neither grazed nor browsed under normal conditions because they are unpalatable or few in number. Unusual conditions that force livestock to eat toxic quantities of poisonous plants can include drought and biting insects. The Alberta Agriculture Food and Rural Development supplied the following list of plants that are poisonous to cattle:

Tall larkspur	Milk Vetches	Monkshood
Low Larkspur	Mushrooms	Mustards
Water hemlock	Saskatoon	Showy milkweed
Arrowgrass	Chokecherry	Black nightshade
Horsetails or scouring rush	Death Cama	Dogbane
Early yellow locoweed	Lady’s thumb	Corydalis

Don and Margaret Badger of Maple Lea Farms in Quebec have achieved great success with their Highland beef, even supplying several grocery stores. The following is a short excerpt from an article they wrote on producing Highland beef:

“The genetics you choose will affect the rate of gain of your animals as well as the tenderness of the beef produced. The overall goal is to have the animal reach slaughter weight at as young an age as possible. To do this the animal must be constantly gaining weight at its maximum genetic potential.

A typical situation for many breeders would be to have a spring born calf (April-May) which would be weaned in the fall (October-November) and marketed the following fall (October-November) at about 18 months of age (540 days). A typical calf will have a 200 day weaning weight raging between 350-400 lbs. depending on the age and genetics of the dam and the pasture available.

The feeding regime employed over the next 340 days will greatly influence the quality and quantity of meat to be sold. To reach market weight of approximately 1000 lbs, the calf must gain, on average, 2 lbs per day from weaning to slaughter. There is no “one size fits all” formula for success. This weight gain can be achieved with a good forage ration or a combination of forage and grain. Whatever you choose, you must provide the animal with enough high quality feed for maintenance plus an average gain of 2 lbs per day. We do this by feeding the best hay we have plus a 14% grain ration starting at weaning.

The ration you choose will affect the flavour of the beef produced, but as long as you are consistent and your consumers like the product, just keep with it!

Highland breeders pride themselves in raising their animals as naturally as possible without any hormones, vaccinations or additives, creating a wholesome product ideally suited for niche marketing. It is advised that you check with your local large animal veterinarian in regards to bovine diseases that may be prevalent in your area though and vaccinate for them if necessary (for example: Anthrax in Saskatchewan or Black-Leg in Quebec).