To see long-haired Scottish Highland cattle with their sweeping horns and flowing locks is eye-popping. These are not the cattle you typically see in fields.
To see 10-year-old, 60-pound Morgan Hall of Brighton handle a Highland heifer that outweighs her 20 times is also eye-popping.
The Hudson Elementary fifth-grader and 14 other youngsters were getting tips Wednesday on how to show the shaggy beasts at the junior demonstration show.
Morgan had spent hours shampooing, blow-drying and combing the locks of a 1,200-pound lass named Margarita.
“It’s like if you went to a nice place for ladies to get their hair done,” Morgan explained as she held Margarita’s halter close to the head. “Shampoo, blow dry, hair spray. Then when you go to show, you fluff their butts.”
Morgan just started showing Highlands this summer. So she was getting advice from Jenny Kilian of Ault, the coordinator of the American Junior Highland Cattle Association.
“Be proud of what you’re showing,” Kilian told the youngsters. “Show them off – like a diamond ring – no obstructed views.”
Bred in the harsh winters of the Scottish Highlands, the 500-year-old breed persisted through natural selection. Today, their abundant insulation makes them an attractive breed of beef cattle in the extreme cold, but they also fare well in warmer weather, said Dr. Dave Demuth of York, Neb., who has raised Highland cattle for 19 years and is showing nine at the National Western.
“I’m a physician, so I was looking for something easy to raise and easy calving,” Demuth said. “The calves are only 60 or 70 pounds, so If I’m at the hospital, or delivering a human I don’t have to leave to pull a calf,” he said as he gave his 1,175-pound steer, Bomber, the spa treatment.
Grass-fed and grain-finished, Highlands are raised for beef, Demuth said. That beef is of such quality that the queen of England keeps a herd at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. So it’s referred to as the meat of royalty, Demuth said.
Lean and low in cholesterol, Highland beef has little outside back fat, good marbling and fine ribeyes, said Doug Matthews of Strawberry Park Farms in Steamboat Springs, who sells Highland beef to Vitamin Cottage under the brand name River Ranches.
The Halls of Brighton also raise Highlands for their beef. “But they’re so cute, you’re attracted to them with the long hair and all,” said Morgan’s stepmother, Audra Hall, herself a redhead. “Plus most of them are redheads, so they can’t be all bad.”
Staff writer Dave Curtin can be reached at 303-820-1276 or dcurtin@denverpost.com.
