LiTerra Avon, our lead cow.

Hunny is our oldest cow. She is gentle, calm, and an ancestor to nine of our other cows and calves.

The * after her number indicates that she is an impact dam. That status is awarded to cows that begin calving by age three years and four months and produce four calves by the time they are seven years and four months.

Hunny has gone on to produce a total of at least 11 calves and we believe there was a 12th in 2018 that she was not credited with.

Although Hunny came to us just a couple of years ago, she is a favorite and will live out her years here simply because she has so much of her family still on our farm. I’d loved this girl from afar because of the beautiful cows we’d purchased from her line. When the opportunity came to bring her to El Miniature Highland I jumped at the chance. D.O.B. 5/25/2005

Muirneag presented us with twins when she was 14 years old! Muirneag came to El Miniature Highland with Hunny Bunny during the summer of 2022. She brought with her a daughter, who will carry on her genetics.

The birth of twins was hard on Muirneag, so we really don’t expect her to give us any more calves. If someone wanted a pair of beautiful cows just to look at and pet, Hunny Bunny and Muirneag could go together to a loving retirement home. D.O.B. 10/3/2008

Janie also arrived with Hunny Bunny during the summer of 2022. Because she is just a bit younger, Janie is still actively calving and gave us a beautiful little heifer in January of 2024. Janie will be a part of our AI program for calving in 2024. D.O.B. 4/21/2010

One of the most stunning girls we have is Bristol, the fourth of the five cows that joined us in 2022 from Legacy Cattle Company. Bristol became a favorite of mine the day she arrived. She’s already given us two sweet calves that have the temperament of cuddle cows. Bristol is Hunny Bunny’s daughter. D.O.B. 4/25/2010

Angel to us, but Gracie to her former owner, is a wonderful mother. The calf in this photo was awarded reserve champion in his division at the Southeast Highland Cattle Show in 2022. Levi stayed on to sire some calves here at El Miniature Highland. This year, Angel presented us with a beautiful little yellow heifer, so her genetics will live on.

I can’t say enough good things about this girl. Muirneag is easy going and loves for visitors to comb her out. She is a super mother with a great udder and she has given us wonderful calves every year since coming to El Miniature Highland from Big Ridge in 2018.

Callie is a cow to make you proud! She is an impact dam and she likes to tell the world when there is a new calf born on El Miniature Highland. You can be sure that when the loudest mooing you’ve ever heard begins, someone has had a baby. Occasionally, she will sound the alarm if something is amiss, like the hay feeder is empty or someone’s calf sneaked out under the fence to get to the grass in the driveway. Callie has had seven calves in her 9.5 years. An amazing record for any cow.

Pictured here with her most recent calf, Moire just makes me hear bagpipes every time I look at her. We are happy to have Moire join us in December of 2023. She was just in time to be one of the cows in our very first attempt at AI. Moire is due to have a calf for us in late December of 2024 and I can hardly wait for that big event!

Cridhe is the daughter of Muirneag of Locustbrae. She is an outstanding example of correct Highland conformation. You might notice her Bus Dubh, the black ring around her nose that is present in only a few Highlands. Cridhe is also the great-great-grandaughter of our Hunny Bunny on her sire’s side. She holds a special place in our hearts because of that.

Big Ridge Abigail is an easy-going girl who loves attention and dotes on her babies like they are the most precious things in the world.

Here she is with Elm’s Hattie her 2019 heifer calf and little Elm Hollow’s Jolene, her sweet little heifer from 2020.

Adalida became our first impact dam with the birth of Elm’s Jetta in 2020. I can’t praise this cow enough for the beautiful calves she has produced.

Her first daughter, EH Gracie still calls Elm Miniature Highland and Adalida has given us EH Adelida’s Hope as another “keeper.”

Annie has been a delight since she arrived here as a young heifer. She was so proud of her first calf, WB Hickock!

Annie’s maternal skills are impeccable and she allows us to take care of her babies as needed without a fuss. Here she is with Justice, her 2020 calf.

One of my favorites! Ban Diuc of Legacy has given us some absolutely beautiful calves. Sold to us as an open heifer, we were delighted when she presented us with a strong, healthy bull calf shortly after her arrival.

She is a wonderful mother and her offspring are stunning. Pictured with her 2020 heifer calf Jaffa, you can see why I love this cow.

Here is Darcy at 10 months old . . . Quite a looker! And then she is showing off her first born, Heather, who has become a permanent resident at El Miniature Highland.  You’ll meet her next.

Darcy was a real learning experience for us here at El Miniature Highland. Darcy was the first heifer we’d had to completely refuse to nurse her calf. She was just not having that little thing near her udder! We were determined not to have a bottle baby here, so the work began.

We are fortunate to have a mama cow stall with a headgate just for such emergencies and were able to constrain Darcy, tie her foot (so she couldn’t kick baby) and get that sweet little heifer calf to nurse. Darcy, though, was stubborn and determined not to allow such behavior on her own, so for almost a month, we went through this battle three times a day.

One day, I was very late getting down to help Heather get her supper, and there they were: Darcy with her head stuck through the open headgate and Heather nursing away. I do believe this clever cow had figured out that because we used grain to lure her into the headgate, she would get fed 3 meals a day if she continued with her charade!

With her second beautiful calf, Darcy took motherhood in stride and she is now a dependable girl who produces beautiful calves. And she looks just like her daddy!

As promised, it is time to meet Heather who almost became a bottle calf, but not quite. Heather became quite tame with all the handling and learned to love her hoomans who made sure her coo mama took care of her.

She believes that any two-legged creature in the pasture is there to pet her, brush her, give her treats and take pictures of her. She has become the greeter here at Elm Hollow and she’s never met a stranger. Heather is truly the doll of El Miniature Highland and she wants to keep it that way!

Heather loves to play dress up. As she matures she is beginning to look more like her mama every day.

When Dare arrived from her home in Wisconsin, it was love at first sight! She was easy going and loved to be brushed.

She would even “hug” you with her neck and head if you stood close. She still tries to do that sometimes, but her horns are too big for that to be comfortable now.

A little full of herself as a teenager, Dare jumped the fence to have a fling with one of the boys at a younger age that we would have planned, but she assured us she knew what she was doing and indeed she did.

She has grown into a beautiful gentle cow that produces wonderful calves for us every year. Because we were totally unaware of her sneaking out with her boyfriend, Dare surprised us with a beautiful, healthy heifer that was all dry and up nursing before we had time to worry!

What a joy to have this beautiful LEA girl! I fell in love as soon as I saw her at the Southeast auction in 2018. I know Pat didn’t really want to give her up, she was a stand in for another LEA girl and I just had to have her. She is one of our friendliest coos and she loves to lick your hand, your arm, your hair, she just thinks everyone is her baby and probably needs a bath.

Nocturn has a habit of calving right out in the open no matter what the weather. With her first, El Miniature Highland’s Jerry Lee, we had to take him inside and warm him up a bit. I worried that as a new mama, Nocturn might be hesitant to take him back after he’d been away from her, but that was wasted worry. She was eager to get her little boy to nursing and he grew into a beautiful bull! Her second was born in the snow! Nocturn gladly followed us to a barn when we took baby to shelter and was once again a stellar mother.

If Nakita looks a lot like Isabel to you, it is with good reason. These girls have the same sire and were born just days apart on the same farm, and they have been together since they were calves. Nakita spent some time in the show ring and she loves to be brushed and even likes a good bath now and then.

We are looking forward to having a calf from Nakita since her breeder tells me that her dam is an excellent impact dam. So far though, Nakita has no recorded offspring.

Never came to El Miniature Highland with a beautiful heifer calf, Kinley. Tragically, Kinley developed an infection that, in spite of intensive intervention, took her from us. Never knew we were trying to help and even though she didn’t know us, she allowed us free access to Kinley as we worked to try to save her.

We are all looking forward to meeting her next calf. Never is one of those cows who really want to be brushed, but just can’t quite bring herself to let us touch her yet. She will come around, I’m sure.