Our fold of Scottish Highland cattle is important to us. We spend lots of time with them and they all have their individual personalities. See the photos below and learn more about our animals.
 Circle ME Aila
DOB: June 6, 2006
Aila is the class clown of the fold. She is full of mischief. If you have a comb in your hand it is all over - you will be combing her as long as she wants! Although she wasn't what judges were particularly looking for in the show ring, she is an excellent brood cow. She has length of body and is plenty wide. Her udder is nice and tight with great teats. And she is an easy calving cow - just like the breed is supposed to be. Her calves put on an amazing amount of weight in those first few months.
Aila - Scottish feminine name meaning "little bird"
 Almosta Farm's Brooke
DOB: March 27, 2009
Brooke is the sweetheart of the bunch. She loves attention, but tends to wait patiently for you to notice her. She will be having her first calf the first week of March (2012) and we can't wait. We hope they will have the same temperament as Brooke. She is very thick and straight in her type. We have great expectations. She is probably the most feminine of our animals.
 Almosta Farm's Cami
DOB: March 19, 2009
Cami came to us with the nickname of "Diva". It fits her well. She is now the herd boss. She tends to be the greeter for visitors that come into the paddock. She used to be cute, but is now intimidating for people not used to the animals. Cami is also solidly built, we liked her shoulders when we saw her as a weanling - very stout for a heifer. She is uniformly thick all the way back. Cami will be having her first calf the last week of March, 2012.
 Patriot
DOB: September 11, 2008
Patriot is a bottle fed steer that was given to us by Zealand Farms. We were looking for a steer for the girls to show and Patriot was the perfect little guy. He has a nose ring because he will be an ox that will be used in parades and other functions. He is going to be a great ambassador for the breed. He is hard to fluster and enjoys all the attention he can get. His show career is over. However, his Ox career is just beginning. He will be kept around as long as he lives. The nose ring is unusual in a steer, but because he is going to be out in the public so often it is there for safety reasons - the added control in a situation when it is needed. Other than that, it is purely jewelry, never to be touched!
 Ruairidh of Flatland Farm
DOB: April 6, 2009
"Rory" is our first calf from Aila. He is a bull and our first experiment in breeding cattle. His temperament is the absolute best - easy going, easy to handle, showing bull behavior but never aggressive. Great temperament, deep bodied, and great feet. The girls like to call him Ferdinand, after the book Ferdinand the Bull. He is expecting his first calves this spring, from Brooke and Cami. We have high hopes!
Ruairidh - is Scottish for Rory, and means "red king"
 Norman
DOB: January 2010
Norman is a steer that we purchased the spring of 2010 from an unregistered herd. He hadn't been handled at all before we picked him up, but he settled down nicely. He now waits patiently in the pasture for you to come over and scratch him. The girls had fun showing him, and now he is out there gaining weight. Pretty impressive for a scrawny little calf that came home here just 2 years ago.
Norman - was named for the calf in the movie "City Slickers"!
 Almosta Farm's Britt
DOB: March 28, 2011
Britt is Brooke's full sister, and looks and acts just like her! Just what we wanted. Mark couldn't let her pass when she came up and licked him on a farm visit to Almosta Farm. She is thick bodied with a nice laid back temperament. We are looking forward to watching her develop and probably another year of showing before she is bred at 2. We had a tendency to call her Grandma, as she liked to watch everyone else play. But then some others her age showed up - and now she is the calf matriarch telling everyone what they should be doing!
Prairie Creek Dalles
DOB: April 15, 2011
Dalles is a heifer who came to us from a farm just 15 miles away - Prairie Creek Highlands. They have a wonderful herd of very nice animals, and we had early on committed to purchasing some heifers from them this year. Dalles is a lot like Aila - she is a bit of a clown, and is into everything. She is very sweet and loves to be scratched. Her feet are probably some of the best we have on the farm, and she is THICK! It will be fun to watch her develop over the next few years. She will be starting her show career this spring. She will be a lot of fun to show with all that hair!
Dalles - is a Scottish name meaning "from the Dales" which are "meadowed valleys" - just like the farm she was born on!
 Prairie Creek Maisie
DOB: May 21, 2011
Maisie also came to us from Prairie Creek Highlands. She has a sweet temperament - but tends to like to be off by herself. She is a very deep, compact animal. She also has terrific feet. She chews her cud about as fast as she can manage - I don't know if that is because she is trying to get room for more hay? She is a terrific eater, and is fun to watch push around the older calves. Will be interesting to see where she ends up in the herd. She will also be starting her show career this spring, and it will be a lot of work with all that woolly hair she has!
Maisie - is Scottish for "pearl". Her mother was named "Opal" and also a black cow.
 Ciara of Flatland Farm
DOB: September 4, 2011
Ciara (pronounced "Kee-ra") was born on a Sunday night just as I had gotten into the house to sit down for the first time that day. I saw Aila pacing and told Mark he would probably have a calf to deal with in the morning. I had just fed Aila a few treats - 10 minutes later - Ta Da! There she was. She will be a dunn color, and seems to be developing as a thick, thick heifer. Her sire is Skye High Koal - who was the 2009 Bull of the Year, and Aila was the 2010 Show Cow of the Year - so we had high expectations. All of which have been met. She likes to do what she wants, but is pretty easy to convince otherwise. I think she is going to follow in her mother's footsteps as a clown. She is normally at the head of the pack with her tail in the air tearing around the paddock. Watch for her this year at the shows!
Ciara - is Scottish for "dark one". She was steel gray when she was born, so it seemed fitting!
As you can see, we try to have Scottish names for the animals that we name. It is not always easy since the web allows you to search many different sites and find many different meanings! Mark now has a couple of books of Scottish names and we are looking forward to naming the new calves this year with equally Scottish names!
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