The day started with “We don’t have to worry about when Caylea is going to calve. Look out the window.” It was 5:45 am, and a small brown bundle lay curled and wet in the calving pen. Grabbing the iodine and the Vitamin E shot we rushed up to the barn. Scooping up the calf, Ray quickly carried it to the barn with momma Caylea in hot pursuit. Nothing wrong with that calf’s lungs! He blatted loudly and profusely all the way to the barn. Not all of our cows would let her calf be removed and carried to the barn without being aggressive to the baby thief, but Caylea is not your ordinary cow.

Is this what Spring-Cleaning looks like at your place? Highland twin steers Rob and Roy think the tractor bucket is just there to scratch off winter hair.

Rob and Roy are rocking a tractor that weighs over 10,000 lbs. , but are gentle enough to take a baby carrot from your fingers.

“That calf is a real go-getter,” I said as the calf started vigorously nursing on momma.

Rewind for the rest of the story. First, we had to go get the 'go- getter'.

At 6:30 am, while at the computer answering an inquiry about Highland Cattle my cell phone rang. “Get up here quick. There’s a new calf.”

With new calves born 4/3, 4/4, 4/5, 4/7 and 4/10 I told Ray that according to my breeding dates we should have a couple of days (and hopefully nights) without a new arrival.

So much for that.

I know Eve is not due until the 7th but she is usually a bit early, and there is a storm coming,” I said. Ray probably was not thrilled with having to trek down into the pasture and halter Eve, but off we went with comb and halter. I often think of ideas, but it is Ray who actually has to do the work to execute them. Eve was led her up to the barn and closed into a pen with fresh straw. It was 6 pm.

On a Cow/Calf farm the most important product—the only product—is our calf. Contrary to a dairy farm, where milk is the product and the calf a necessary by-product, birthing and raising a healthy calf is what we work for all year. Whether that calf will be sold for breeding stock or food, we breed, feed, and care for our momma cow every day to try to ensure she can successfully birth and raise a healthy offspring. The loss of a calf is devastating--emotionally as well as economically.

Did you ever know someone who seemed a bit shy about coming forward to make your acquaintance? Someone who you thought might like to be friends, but they just didn't seem to know how? Someone truly beautiful, who did not even know just how lovely they were? Who, after you made the first move, seemed so grateful for your attention that you were soon fast and everlasting friends?

The Easter Bonny and Little Percy Rabbit hopping over to wish you Happy Spring!

Shat Acres Bonny Maliah and Shat Acres Cinnamon Perseus are all ears, listening for Big Bunny to show up with a basket of treats--or better yet, a comb!

Saying Good-bye to Gentle Giant #45079

Shat Acres Cinnamon Bear 4/10/07-1/1/20

Friend, Champion, Sire of Champions

Behind every great Calf, there is a great Cow.

And sometimes, behind every great Cow, there is a great Vet.

Some of you might remember reading about Shat Acres Brandy Brooklyn and the life-threatening injury she endured. In October 2020 when Brooklyn was a year old, she got tangled in an electrified speed fence.

Here are some of our recent visitors to Highland House Farm Stay. Baby Bonny is always ready and willing to untie boots while getting loved on. Rob and Roy, our four year old twin steers are always ready to delight and amaze guests by gently taking apple and carrot treats from their hands. Rob and Roy weigh a ton each, with horn spans of 65”.

When my cell phone rings, I am usually working at the computer, answering emails, doing bookkeeping, paying bills, or some other sedimentary and unexciting but necessary farm tasks. When Ray asks if I will come to the barn, I never know what I will find. I grudgingly leave what I know I have to do but am always glad that I did. Getting out into the fresh air--no matter how cold or nasty--making the trek up to the barn and being with the Highlands, reminds me why I do what I have to do to keep our farm sustainable.

Have you ever been to Branson, MO?

Ray and I will be flown to Branson as the presenters at the Heartland Highland Cattle Association annual meeting. We are so honored to have been invited and will be speaking to attendees about two important farming topics.

The snow-covered Highlands shows how well their double layer of hair insulates their bodies, keeping them warm and toasty inside. Although it might look like they are cold, the snow does not melt on their bodies because body heat is not being lost. Highlands need this double layer of hair to hold the heat in, with the only area of heat loss the bare skin on their nose. Highlands are unique among bovines, tolerating extreme weather due to this double layer of hair.

Shat Acres Highland Cattle is the oldest registered Highland herd in the United States. It is also the oldest closed herd, meaning no Highland female has been purchased for breeding in over forty years. The over fifty years of breeding and perfecting desirable Highland genetic traits has also made Shat Acres Highland Cattle some of the most winning Highlands in the United States.

Shat Acres Cinnamon (with the assistance of excellent bulls) was in large part, responsible for Shat Acres' success in the show ring. Ol’ Cinnamon, as she was affectionately called long before Ray and Janet began showing their Highlands throughout the United States, was the dam of Shat Acres Cinnamon Swirl and Shat Acres Cinnamon Raisin, as well as several other Cinnamon offspring. Cinnamon Swirl, was Ray and Janet’s first National Western Stock Show Grand Champion in Denver, Colorado in 2004. Cinnamon Swirl’s offspring then did their momma proud, Shat Acres Swirl’s Girl winning Reserve Grand Champion Cow/Calf at the NWSS, and her son Shat Acres Cinnamon Bear winning many Grand Championships in 2009. Another Cinnamon Swirl daughter, Shat Acres Cinnamon Eve, was Grand Champion Cow/Calf in Virginia in 2016 with baby CinnamonDot.

Greensboro, Vermont

Reporter: Anson Tebbetts - Shat Acres Farm

A group of Belgian farmers is on an international tour to learn different techniques and they're stopping in the Green Mountains.

The visit for the group of 38 included a visit to Shat Acres Farm, a Highland cattle farm in Greensboro.

Thousands of miles and two herds are coming together, but this introduction almost didn't happen.

"I received an email saying that there was a group that wanted to come visit our farm from Belgian," said Janet Steward, the co-owner of Shat Acres.

Five more 2023 weanling calves came into the barn this week. A question is sometimes asked if it is necessary to wean calves, or will the mommas wean the calves by themselves? For thousands of years Highlands have survived, much of that time without a lot human intervention. During that time the majority of weanings took place naturally--or the breed would not have endured. But not all. When natural weaning was not successful, momma might be weakened by not having a rest period to rebuild her strength before the arrival of a new calf.

The high ridge on Plainfield’s East Hill upon which Ray Shatney and Janet Steward’s Highland Scottish cattle munch sweet summer hay might be thought by some as a quiet place to retire and reflect. Ray and Janet, in whose diligent care these magnificent long-horned animals thrive, certainly have a plethora of reflections, but the many lovers of their unique beef — sold as “Greenfield Beef” — are hoping that retirement is a long way off.

Ray grew up on his grandfather’s farm in Greensboro, later moving to a smaller farm where his father brought the small Highland fold he had built, and where the majority of the herd resides. Grandfather Arthur legendarily had to go to Canada to marry Winona, a full-blooded Abenaki woman. This was, after all, the era of Henry Perkin’s eugenics movement to ‘breed a better Vermonter,’ which entailed the forced sterilization of native women.

Shat Acres Roy got cleaned off this evening with the big hair blower. Yesterday evening it was Rob’s turn with the blow dryer. Rob and Roy are 4-year-old twin steers and big hits with our Farm Stay visitors, gently eating apples from guests’ hands.

PLAINFIELD — Gov. Phil Scott has declared August “Agritourism Month,” and he kicked the month off with a visit to a Plainfield beef farm known for producing award-winning highland cattle.

The governor held his weekly news conference at Greenfield Highland Beef, an American Scottish Highland beef business owned and operated by Janet Steward and Ray Shatney. The pair have been raising the brownish-orange cattle with long hair and big horns for decades. They were named the U.S. Small Business Association’s Vermont Family-owned Business of the Year in 2016 and have won numerous awards showing their cattle at national events.