Stories from the Farm

Thinking about buying Scottish Highland cattle? Here's what to consider first: climate, companionship, pasture, bottle babies, mini Highlands, and where to find cattle for sale.

How a lifelong habit of browsing livestock classifieds led to Scottish Highland cattle, Happy Hens & Highlands, and co-founding HoofnHorn, an online livestock marketplace.

I’ve been the excited cattle buyer, the person who got scammed and the breeder trying to help others avoid those same mistakes. Now I’m putting those experiences into HoofnHorn, a heritage livestock marketplace we’re building to make buying and selling easier.

I have almost 80,000 cow photos I’ve never had the heart to delete. Working on HoofnHorn is giving me new ideas for them and a chance to use my artistic talents on something I’m excited about. Every animal has a story, and I’m enjoying getting to bring that much of myself into what we’re creating.

Years of buying and selling cattle, getting scammed and learning the hard way have shaped what I want to do differently. Now Jason and I are building HoofnHorn, a new marketplace for heritage livestock opening October 22. 

Joy gave birth to Peace on the same day my new shirts arrived, and what started as taking a few photos for my website turned into one of those evenings you could never really plan. A new calf, perfect light, good conversation, and for the first time in a while, feeling more inspired by the future than overwhelmed by it.

Joy had a heifer tonight, and we named her Peace. It started as the right name for a P year and a calf from a mating I had been hoping would give me another heifer, but by the end of the night I realized the name fit a lot more than the calf.

If you read part one, you know I tried to build an online Highland cattle marketplace years ago, and eventually...

A few years ago, a conversation after one of our early cattle auctions gave me an idea. I tried to build it, eventually let it fade away, and honestly didn’t know if I would ever come back to it.

We started with $500, a little barn in Sparta, North Carolina, and absolutely no idea what we were doing. Eight years later, the best part of the Southeast Highland Cattle Show & Sale has very little to do with the cattle and everything to do with the people who helped build it.

The cow I once begged someone to put a price on has now given me five heifers. This latest one arrived just in time for my birthday and reminded me why some of the purchases you second guess the most end up being the ones you’re most thankful you made.