New Year arrivals

Posted: 09/01/2013

2013 started with a flurry of activity amongst our resident herd of Highland Cattle as we have had three very early calves – born on the 2nd, 4th and 8th of January. 

The proud mums are our two three-year-old heifers, Morag and Amelia, and Kathleen who is four years old. Highlands are bred to withstand harsh conditions and the calves are naturally born with thick coats - perfect for this time of year! 

Kathleen is black, and her little bull calf is a beautiful grey colour, known in Highland Cattle circles as ‘silver’. The other two calves are what we call red, but in reality are more of a dark auburn. Both of them are bull calves too, which is a little disappointing as their mums have shown well in the last two seasons and we had hoped to keep their female offspring in our breeding herd. This is obviously not to be, however, we have every hope that they will be good enough to eventually be sold as breeding bulls. In the meantime, we are enjoying having them around and they are bound to be a big hit with our visitors. 

The smallest is proving a lazy boy who refuses to make an effort to suckle, so we have had to use a bottle initially to get him feeding. There has been a trend in the Marrick Park Fold for the boys, rather than the girls, to show this slowness to latch on!