McCallie Highland Coos has been raising registered Scottish cattle for decades intended for extending excellent bloodlines, as pets, and the healthiest all natural beef.

Breeding exclusively registered Scottish bovine is essential to this ancient breed's survival. After several centuries of existence, this amazing creature became endangered in recent years due to crossbreeding. Breeding exclusively registered Highlands helps avoid potential issues like the mutated gene, chondrodysplasia, which results in the dwarfism of animals like mini-Highlands, which can't be registered.

Most of our coos are registered in the Heartland Highland Cattle Association (HHCA) and or the American Highland Cattle Association (AHCA). Our babies are looked after closely and trained to be friendly for hands-on petting, scratching and brushing from birth with a natural upbringing of only nursing with their mother, hay, and pasture grazing.

Sterling was the last baby of Skye, one of our largest, most impressive cows. Like Sterling, she was a dun. Claymore is a black bull. Sterling will not grow to be as large as his parents, likely topping out around 1,400-1,500 lbs with a smaller, but stocky conformation. He is very eager to breed and while super gentle with people, he is rambunxious and playful with his friends, especially his closest brother.

While still a baby, Sterling traveled to the St. Louis Scottish Games where he met about 4,000 attendees and was briefly featured on a televised news story about the event. He needs a home with at least one breeding aged heifer and will remain a delightful pet.

Highland coos are reputed to have much easier births than most bovines. For that reason, there is little footage of them being born. We were fortunate to capture the rarely seen moment of his delivery by following Skye deep into our forest where she gave birth to Sterling as a small, dun bull. Footage of this precious moment is below and also on our Wild Flower Farm YouTube channel.

Sterling

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Bull

August 15, 2021

Claymore

Skye

Dun

HHCA definitely, maybe AHCA eligible

Super friendly and cuddly

Asking $5,000

Laird is the largest baby we have ever had. Highland bulls can potentially max out at 2,000 lbs and of all the babies we have ever bred, he is most likely to achieve such massive size. At birth, he was nearly the size of a six-month old. As a yearling, he was as tall as some of our smaller heifers.

He is a calm bull who loves to be petted, brushed, and scratched. He is very gentle with people and only occasionally wrestles with other coos. His personality is more independent than most of our fold and should be very easy to halter train, use for riding, or pulling. We expect he will throw amazing babies with greater likelihood of them being black since both of his parents are. Laird was born bright red and has evolved like a brindle as his adult black hairs replace his baby coat. Laird has always been super sweet and cuddly from the moment he was born.

Laird

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April 27, 2023

Claymore

Black Beauty

Black

AHCA & HHCA eligible

Very affectionate

Asking $6,000

Like most of the babies bred and raised by McCallie Highland Coos, Darla has been cuddly since she was born. Training her was easy because her mother and father are two of our most friendly cattle. She displays traditional behaviors of curiosity and loving to be pet, scratched, and brushed, especially around her horns and ears.

A couple unique traits of Darla are that she started eating hay almost immediately. Unlike most newborns, she began wading into the water with the larger coos while just several weeks old, largely influenced by this summer's hundred degree heat.

Currently half a year old, she is still nursing. Her size is already nearly the same as some of our two-year-old bulls so we expect her to grow to around 1,500 lbs, which is on the large side of of how big a heifer or cow can become. She spends most of her time with the smallest of our bulls, they are best pals and tend to only separate when she nurses.

Darlin' Darla

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Heifer

March 13, 2024

Claymore

Marnie, a.k.a, Tully

Dun

AHCA & HHCA eligible

Very affectionate

Asking $7,000

Fergus has the most adventurous story of any coo we've ever bred. Not sure how he came to look in the woods for a stray newborn, but Don McCallie intuitively saw Black Beauty alone and walked to one of our forest waterfalls at night to find a big surprise. Don found Black Beauty's newborn baby at the bottom of a steep ravine carved.

The helpless newborn had likely tumbled around forty feet and landed on large stones. Since he hadn't nursed, he was so weak that he could barely raise his head. His fur was still slick and damp, covered in afterbirth. His surviving this much was miraculous.

Don fetched Matt McCallie and the two carefully climbed down the steep ravine wall to the helpless baby. The newborn needed help every bit of the way during his rescue. He was too large, heavy, and slippery to hold by hand so Don got Peggy to bring ropes and straps and a four wheeler. Peggy remained at the top of the hill where she at first tried using the ATV to pull the baby up, but it didn't have the power. She had to tie the tow strap to the strongest nearby tree.

Don and Matt had no way to climb back up while carrying the newborn. Matt's service dog, Munchkin, was the only one capable. Even with his agility and strength, Munchkin struggled not only because of the steepness, but because the terrain had lots of loose rock and dirt. Every step would slide. The only thing that worked was Don and Matt laying the calf across Munchkin's back so he could take just a few steps at a time. They had to reset the baby on Munchkin's back many times while trying to climb along. It was a long, arduous ordeal but they all eventually made it up to solid ground.

Don then got on his four wheeler and straddled the baby across the seat so he could hold onto it while driving up to the corral. He accidentally put the ATV in the wrong gear and crushed Matt against a tree. After everyone made it up to the corral it was a relief to discover the baby had no apparent injuries. But concern for his survival was still intense since the baby still lacked the strength to even raise his head.

It was the middle of the night and few places were open, but Don and Peggy bought goat milk and microwaved it for little Fergus. They put the milk in a nursing bottle and got him to start drinking. He was a thirst boy! After drinking lots of milk, he was eventually able to stand and feebly walk around and do a little stumbling frolicking.

Black Beauty had disappeared so bottle feeding had to continue into the next day. Don was able to continue nursing Fergus from the bottle, but we needed to transition the newborn to his mother. Nursing naturally enhances the bond and ensures the baby will be able to continue acquiring the correct, powerful nutrients needed to ensure good health. Don and a visitor both tried to get the baby to latch on to the mother but could not get them connected.

Matt McCallie knew it would be necessary to put his animals skills to work. Unfortunately, being disabled made bending down that low extremely difficult, but it was necessary. Matt was quickly able to get baby Fergus to latch on to his mother to nurse naturally. After we saw Fergus drink, separate, then nurse from Black Beauty again, that was proof the baby would be alright.

Fergus is the only newborn coo Don McCallie ever bonded with. Most tiny babies were scared of him and wouldn't let him pet them until they were many months, sometimes years old. Fergus took instantly to the Donald, likely because he had helped rescue and nurse him to life. Fergus once walked out the property gate but was so easy to manage, Don was able to very quickly get him to go back inside without treats, a lasso, or any other aids.

Fergus has continued to be one of our most cuddly coos. He is likely the most perfect bull we have ever bred with excellently matching horns, an ideal demeanour, and gorgeous looks. By the age of two, the diameter of his horns at his skull were already larger than his father's and have continued to grow. Fergus will be large, at least 1,800 lbs once fully grown. Now three, he is already taller than some of our adults.

He and Sterling, being born very close together, have been inseperable best friend brothers all this time. It is hard to imagine separating them, but they each need their own fold to sire. Fergus is ready to breed.

An example of how cuddly Fergus is, is that he is our first coo to allow Matt to regularly sit on his back when the bull is lying down. Fergus is also trained to raise his head for scratching under his chin and neck. He has yet to be trained to eat range cubes.

Fergus

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August 4, 2021

Claymore

Black Beauty

Black

AHCA & HHCA eligible

Affectionate

Asking $7,500