Highland cows

Has anyone ever sheared one? Just wondering how easy the fleece is to spin? Do the calves give a softer one, bit like lamb’s wool?
Also, if you have done, how easy is it to shear a large animal with massive horns and do you have a picture of one naked?

Can’t be that hard, I believe people use yak wool for things.

And what exactly are highland cows for?

Eating

They milk them for toffee:

Yes, but the non-eating cows don’t have much wool. (I think dairy cows may be the technical term…)
Sheep have a lot of wool but that doesn’t stop people eating them as well as shearing them.
Does the fact that Highland Cow wool is brown make it harder to dye and so less desirable?

Just wondering how easy the fleece is to spin?

For some reason I imagine the hair being quite brittle. Looks like you need to wait for late winter/early spring when theyll have a decent undercoat.

Google throws up a few clues, I suspect you’ll have more luck on a US craft forum.

If anyone does try and shear one, let me know I could do with a laugh…how would you tip the **** on its back and get its head between your legs?

You’d brush the hair out.

Folk who errr… ‘show cows’ for events and wot not used to brush the coats to keep them in good condition. Stacks of hair comes out when you do this.

Seems there’s an industrial option….

…how would you tip the **** on its back and get its head between your legs?

No, he said shEAR it

…how would you tip the **** on its back and get its head between your legs?

Having been up close a personal to one of these while she dropped a calf, holding onto the horns required all the strength I and the farmers wife had…having those horns between your legs would rapidly lead to a new a*se hole being torn….

Ahhhhhhh, they are gorgeous. 😀

They are just ewok’s, ready to turn into a nice burger…

Highland calf

Ewok baby

holding onto the horns required all the strength I and the farmers wife had

Offers plenty of leverage for steering the bloody things, though…

Sheep have a lot of wool but that doesn’t stop people eating them as well as shearing them.

Sheep reared for wool are rarely eaten though, the meat we eat comes from sheep between 2 and 5 months old and to takes a year to produce a fleece.

Highland cows are just the coolest creatures, This is Kai of Skinford (vastly shortened pedigree name) who we’ve had to hand rear as his mother refused to let him near her teats within the first hr of birth which is more often than not fatal as they need the colostrum produced by the mother to colonise their digestive tract with Antibodies, it is super high quality first milk produced by the mother prior to giving birth, very high in protein and growth hormones that seeds the initially porous stomach and gives protection from disease and infection.

This poor lad was refused access to the teats and the mother would not let us any where near her to try and milk her teats manually, she has horns of over a 6ft span that are far too large to get in the cattle crush so we had to hand rear him, he follows us around the farm and estate like one of the dogs. This pic was taken back in May – he’s considerably larger now and weighs a good few hundred KG which can be alarming when you whistle on him and wait for the rumble to appear over the hill as he barrels towards you before siding to a halt with his tongue flopping around like a big daft puppy.

Even though he is very tame you cannot 100% trust him so you have to be careful as he’s obviously not aware of his size or the consequence of his head butts which knock you off your feet, he does like a good brushing/scratching with a wire glossing brush and if you stop too soon he’ll greet like a baby.

It’s still quite cool to take the bull for a walk up the road though 😀

Best thread 2014, bloody funny 😆

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/biker-crashes-into-cow-2014.html

They’re a lot cuter and friendlier looking than the big black Spanish bulls you get round here 😯

*resists temptation to post a picof that Sturgeon woman *

Belted Galloway calves are nearly as cute.

It’s heilan’ coo btw 😉

Startling resemblance, fortunately mine has grown to a few kg rather than a few hundred. I now have to hide this thread otherwise my wife will be trying to persuade me to let her have a highland calf in the garden.

after shearing they look like this

“would you like a leg or I can highly recommend my rump today?”

Been doing research. Turns out you pluck Yaks rather than shear them
.

Not so sure this would work with heilan’ coos though. The yak seems remarkably patient.

Such cuteness. 8)

Can you get ones with extra wide, flat handlebars instead of the usual risers? Will definitely work better with the new wheel size.

@highlandman …. snooooork!!! 😆

Heilan coos can be vicious BTW. You can give most coos a shove or pat on the head (!!) but a Heilan coo is another thing altogether. I’ve seen guys trying to put their hands on the coos head only to have them swiped away by those horns long before they get their hand near them. I’ve helped out on a pals farms many a time and we all give them a wide berth….very very tasty though!

Re the yak video, it can’t for the life of me imagine how one ties the legs of a cow together without loosing all your teeth and your bollocks! 😀

Beware when they give you the evil eye

Highlandman’s post has been there for seven hours and no-one has mentioned Bullhorn handlebars yet! Honestly 🙄

I’d like to see them frisk that in security 😆