Can Highland Cattle Survive Florida? Here's The Truth | With Bennye, Happy Meadows Farm

What does it actually take to raise Highland and High Park cattle in Central Florida - forty-five minutes north of Orlando, in year-round humidity and heat? This week Lori sits down with Bennye of Happy Meadows Farm in Oviedo, Florida to talk about starting small and doing it right, running farm tours by appointment, and the very real reality of keeping fluffy cattle alive and comfortable in a climate that was never designed for them.

From embryo take rates to shaving belly hair to portable AC units in the barn, this episode is packed with practical knowledge for anyone raising Highlands in a warm climate or anyone who's wondered why their calves aren't shedding the way they expected.

Key Takeaways

Know your large animal vet, a backup vet, and your nearest large animal hospital before you ever need them. 

Shave the belly first in heat — releasing core temp from underneath is more effective than hosing the back. 

High parks tolerate Florida heat significantly better than high percentage Highlands. 

Embryo take rates average around 30-50% — waiting to confirm at 60 days rather than 30 reduces false positives. 

Farm tours are a great desensitisation tool for calves and make them far more pet-friendly when they go to their new homes.

Episode Highlights

Bennye explains how she keeps Highland cattle alive and thriving in Florida's brutal humidity with shade, sprinklers, fans, and portable AC. 

Lori and Bennye compare embryo programs — surrogates, take rates, and why five out of thirty was a painful lesson. 

The conversation covers agritourism insurance in Florida, how to prep buyers before a farm visit, and why closed-toe shoes are non-negotiable. 

Plus Lori's big ass fan, and why black Highlands handle heat better than anyone expects.

Timestamps

00:53 — Getting started in 2018 with High Parks in Florida
 02:42 — First calf and growing the herd
 03:08 — Learning as you go and finding mentors
 06:28 — What Bennye wishes she'd known from the start
 11:00 — Farm tours: what they look like at Happy Meadows Farm
 14:41 — Insurance, safety signs and Florida agritourism law
 17:39 — How tours help socialise and desensitise calves
 19:00 — Herd size, space limitations and the embryo program
 25:20 — Embryo take rates and surrogate options
 31:00 — Farm tours by season: why summer slows down
 35:48 — Managing heat in Florida: shaving, sprinklers and shade
 41:13 — Fans, portable AC and keeping calves cool overnight
 48:52 — How Florida Highlands grow coat back in winter — even when it's still hot

Find Happy Meadows Farm at www.happymeadowsfarm.com 
Instagram: @happy_meadows_farm

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 Website: hornsnhoovesauction.com

Production Credit: Edited and produced by @the32collective_ / https://www.the32collective.co/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Horns and Hooves. We have another special guest here today. Her name is Benet. She is from Happy Meadow Farms out of Florida. And she's got an interesting story, and we're just gonna talk to her about it. Can you give us a little bit of a rundown where you're at, how you guys started in the Highlands with the Highland Breed?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Sure. I'm um about 45 minutes north of Orlando. So this is considered Central Florida, and um it is hot here. So when I first started um in 2018, um there weren't many Highlands in Florida. It seems to be growing in popularity these days, but at the time I really had to um look elsewhere to find my startup herd that I got. And um I didn't really start out with full highlands, I started out with high parks, and I really love the classic black and white high park. Um still to this day, it's really one of my favorites. And so when I was getting started, I have a really small farm, and so I wanted to make sure that I got the highest quality of cows that I could because I knew I wasn't going to have a really big herd, you know, I wasn't gonna have hundreds of acres and a bunch of cows everywhere. It was gonna be small, and I wanted them to be kind of like pets also, in addition to um being breeding stocks. So I wanted to find the best quality that I could, and um, I got a breeding bull from um Minnesota, that's where he initially came from. And then I also got my first heifer from Panda Rosa in Illinois. So I started out with those two, and um, that was in 2018, and basically I just, you know, let those two grow up. I let them, I just enjoyed them, I raised them as pets, and after a while, um, I did have to separate them, boy girl, you know. Um, so then I added a third heifer so that way sometimes I would put her with one and then other times I would put her with the other so she didn't go back and forth. And that one was a little bit older, so she was allowed to be with the bull at that time. And um so then in two the very end of 2020 is when our first calf was born, and um it was a little bull calf, and so that was my very first baby who was super exciting. But since then, I you know we have grown and I have added some full Hylands in order to be able to breed back to my high park bull and increase the Hyland percentage. So there it's been a learning gap. Oh, I didn't have cattle before before 2018, so I have learned a lot along the way, and I've learned a lot from um really like a lot of the Facebook groups have has taught me a lot. The breeder that I bought my bull from has been magnificent. He's always been a great mentor for me. And even people that I sold some babies to that I always admit know more than me, I learn from them, even though they're buying a baby from me. So I'm always willing to learn um from anywhere. And I like to learn from other people's mistakes on that. You know, I'm not too proud to learn from from anybody from anywhere. And so I do, I'm very thankful to have been able to learn a lot in the amount of time that I've been raising cattle. And um, I realize that because we're all coming from such different climates, different parts of of the country, um some of some things are handled differently in different areas. So it's good to always have an open mind and just take little bits of information from wherever you can and fit it into um, you know, what's gonna work for your program and and go from there. So that's what I've tried to do.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

You cut out a little bit. Hopefully, hopefully it'll be okay on the on the deal. When I got started, I loved so Caesar was like my dream bowl. Caesar was definitely my dream bowl. Now I have a high park bowl that has Caesar's lines in it. He Caesar's in the lineage oven. But I love my harp my high park bowls, and I love the or not bowls, but all my cattle that are high parks. They are so darn cute.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, that first hepper that I see because people want it.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Was he?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yeah, she, I should say. Yeah, the heifer who was from Caesar. That was really one that I wanted. Uh, it was the same thing. It was like I really wanted a uh Caesar baby, so I was on a wait list because at that time they didn't do auctions. You couldn't just, you know, buy one at the next auction or whatever. You know, I was on a wait list with him, and it took months and months. I think I started on the wait list in like February or March, and I didn't get her until October, so it took a long time for my turn to come up, but it was worth the wait. I just love that the cow that I got from him.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

I do too. And then you mentioned getting started or getting started with uh just the two and then going from there. What is something when you got started that you wish you would have known?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Um, to have really strong fencing and to have multiple vets, because you know, just having one vet sometimes isn't enough. And knowing where your local hospital is, large animal hospital, because even if you have a a large animal mobile vet, which a lot of people in the country don't even have access to one, you know, sometimes it's just a person, you know, sometimes they're busy, they're out of town, they don't have backup. And so it's good to have a secondary vet kind of in your in your back pocket just in case. And it's good to know to have a uh, you know, a line of communication with your large animal hospital because you never know when you're gonna need them. And you don't want it to be where you're in an emergency and then you have to figure it out. And so, you know, that's something I've learned. My second baby that was born here needed to go to the hospital, so that was a very big learning experience for me. And um, he ended up being fine and and he's great now, but it was just, you know, one of those things where I wish I had known um to have a backup vet ready to know about the hospital in advance, and um really and the strong fencing, having a chute in place ready to go just in case. Really this the safety stuff like that. No one really taught me those things. So I now as a breeder, when I'm selling a baby, I always go over all of that with all of my buyers because some of them are are in other parts of the country, so it's not like I can just refer them to my own vet or my own local hospital or anything like that. You know, they have to do that research on their own.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

So the reason why we started this podcast is to help people learn the things that we didn't know when we got started, and that you can't just go buy a little calf and expect it to stay little and not have these things that you just mentioned. And also, I learned something every time from you guys when you guys come on and talk with us, and I just love educating people on this stuff. Am I correct when you now have cow cuddles? Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 8:03

I do, I don't necessarily call it cow cuddles, it's more of like a farm tour.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

So you guys actually do farm tours, is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 8:13

That's correct, yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

So, what we offer is for I like to keep it in small groups so it's not overwhelming for for the animals, and our space is pretty small, but um, we'll offer a farm tour to a family, um, a work group, even field trips to some homeschooling groups if as long as we can keep it small. And people come in, they'll get to see the chickens. We do have a chicken poop up front, and kids can see the chickens, you know, um, people can feed them, and it's that's a cute thing to see at the farm. And then we we go on back to the barn where we see the calves, and it can be a variety of different calves, different ages. It just depends on what we have at that particular time of year that you're coming. So it's always going to be a little bit of a different experience, but we offer a chance for everybody to be up close and personal with the calf. They can pet them, brush them, be in the same space with them. It's not necessarily through a fence like a zoo, you know. You're actually in the same space with the calf, and you're able to really interact with the calf. There's a lot of chances for taking photos, and just depending on your comfort level, you can lean in and kind of give it a give the calf a little cuddle or um take a picture. We're doing more than that, too. You know, it's I do like to try to educate people about the animals and you know, calves and and cows, they are a prey animal. They're not born just wanting to run up and cuddle you like a dog. And so, you know, that has to be um, it takes time to build trust with them. And one of the things I like to do is offer the farm tours, and that helps desensitize our calves and lets them build trust with people so they can learn to experience different ages, different settings, and it really helps them when they go on to their own future home to be trusting and to be pet friendly. Um, it's still gonna be a cow in general, it's gonna grow up and be a cow, but you know, the experience that the calf has now, where it's interacted with different people, had different experiences, has been on the halter, has learned to walk on the lead and that kind of thing, that carries through. And so when people bring that calf home, it really can be more pet friendly and enjoyable, you know, as far as having it for a hobby farm. Because everybody, you know, a lot of people that are buying calves these days, they have smaller farms, they have smaller properties, and they just are looking for some of the mini calves or even the micros to enjoy them, you know, to be pets. And so that's my goal is to train the calves and to teach them to trust, and that way they can go on and you know enjoy their owners as much as their owners are gonna enjoy them.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

I absolutely love that. That is so awesome. So when you do that, do you have to have any special insurance?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

It's a good idea to have special insurance. Um, and you have to check your state because every state is different as far as like their agriculture programs that they allow and what the state covers. And so, our state here in Florida, we post signs on the property that says, you know, it's an agricultural program and we're gonna be um not held responsible for anything, kind of enter at your own risk. So some states have that, some states don't. You would have to look into your own, but Florida does have that. But it's still a good idea to have your own insurance as well because it is a large animal, and and you just never know. Even even a calf can um step on a foot or something like that for a little for a little child, and it could it could hurt, you know. So I do give people um a lot of instructions when they make the appointment. So we do not have usually open hours. We are by appointment only. You're getting a lot of um instructions before you come, so you're made aware of how to interact with the calf, how to um, you know, walk up slowly, approach the shoulder, don't know running, screaming, jumping, that kind of thing, because we want to have a good experience for everybody and forewarning people about that really helps because most people don't know how to interact with an animal like that. So, and as part of the instructions, I always say closed-toed shoes are a must. Don't show up here with your with your flip-flops because I know it's Florida and it's hot, but you know, you're coming to a farm and you don't want to get any toes stepped on. So, as far as that goes. And some of our our babies do have horns, you know, some of them are having their little horn buds coming in, just depending on age. And so you do have to be aware of the horns as well. You know, I some that I've kept, some of my keepers that I've retained have grown up doing the farm tours, and so you know, by the time they're a year old, their horns are getting a little bit big, and you you do have to um be careful with those. So I write all that down so people are made aware before they get here of all the safety precautions.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

That's awesome. I love that. And you like you said, I you know, I didn't wouldn't even have thought about every state being different when it's because are you guys part of agroturism? Is it part of the agritourism program or no?

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Not really specifically, but that's kind of the umbrella of where you get the protection from.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

So you guys started with the two. How many do you have now?

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Now I have nine adults and two calves right now. So I would like to be bigger, but I do have a space limitation as far as a small amount of acreage, so I can't really retain too many more, although I would love to. But the another way that we're able to expand our program without adding more girls is um we do have some babies that come from our embryo program, and that has been helpful because it's another way to get more calves year-round without having to house as many adult cows on the property. So that has helped a lot.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

I bet so, especially for where you guys are at, because it's not like you can just go find land at any given moment. You cannot I'm and the price that you're gonna pay out there. Yeah, the price you're gonna pay.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

So for us here, we're pretty residential, actually. Most people don't even know there would be a ball down my street. Yeah. Even um everyone's comes for the farm tours are like, wow, we can't believe you're right here. So we just, you know, yeah, bought a few acres right here in town, right down this little dirt road. And um, nicely enough, my neighbor actually rents a pasture, but lets me rent a pasture, so that's helped me expand a little bit too.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

But it's oh nice, yeah. That's that's so nice. Yeah, we have actually started turning, we have commercial Angus and the F1 Baldies, and we have started, and also when I got started, I got started with buying a British white cow or a white park cow, and my I had the Highland, and I started creating that way to get my high parks, and then just generation after you know, generation increasing that hair. So then I've my those British whites now and white parks are and some of those, even I've got some high high parks that I use now as surrogates.

unknown 16:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

For because we do the the embryo program, and my husband's put a lot of embryos into our commercials.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

What do you find um has the best take rate as far as for um would it be the Angus or would it be the British Whites?

SPEAKER_02 16:39

I think it be varies, but I'll tell you one thing that I don't feel has the best take rate, and that's the shorthorns. The shorthorns don't and we have put um my brother-in-law, Sean, my husband was born and raised on a dairy farm. Okay. And it's my brother-in-law still has that dairy farm around the corner from us, and we have put a couple in them. Now, theirs because they're fed correctly on the farm, like because they need to have that high nutrition, high energy for them to take, those will do okay. But I've got two jerseys here. I thought my husband was nuts when he bought. In fact, I balked about it. I was like, why? Because I'm sorry, jerseys are so slow. Like I will have everybody in, and these two jerseys are still lollygagging around, and I'm trying to get them in, and then it other ones are going out or coming back out, and I'm like, ah. But last year they had calved, and I ended up I actually bought a bottle calf from an auction, and it was not it was the mom hadn't didn't take it, and so they sold the calf. I had her and then I had one that mom just wasn't gonna take the calf. So I was able to put both those two on that jersey. Oh and so now I like the jerseys a lot better.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah, it's gonna bag up a lot. I mean, you could they probably could be two very easily.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

They fed uh the one had three on her.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

She had three and she had three and probably could have had four. Now my other one, I don't know if she could have taken another, it was her first calf. I don't know if she could have taken any more than her one last this last year. We'll see this year. But we have tried to set them up a few several times for embryo, and they are we ended up bowl breeding them to our uh Aka bowl because they just weren't taking, but they took they weren't even I had the mini crossbreeds, you know, and they weren't taking with them either these two jerseys. But my and maybe the jerseys are so tall they might not uh you know the maybe they couldn't early breach no you never know and it might have been just you never know, but yeah, they so I don't recommend jerseys. We have our best luck with our Angus and British Whites now to put them back in or t if I try to do let's just say I have a crossbreed that just doesn't have the hair and I that I prefer here and I want to use her as one, it doesn't go very well either. Oh but the high the high parks I don't have a problem with. We just put we actually had two heifers that we put we put embrews and we did it some uh another we're always I feel like we're always doing embryos or we're always AIing or something because I AI we use I use my own bowls to AI, so because I have heifer sex semen, so I use the heifer sexed and AI with that, and then my bowls will get to do the cleanup later. But we just there's so many bowls out there. I know so many bowls, yeah. And all of my embryos, almost all of my embryos are heifer sexed.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Okay, that's really smart.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

So then we're to try to laminate. I know it the cost is a little bit higher when you're doing it, as you probably know. Yeah, simply but if I use that ha if I use my own bowl with that heifer sex or the heifer sex semen with my own o site, I'm I'm not out versus using somebody else's high dollar semen.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Yeah, yeah, no, that's really smart. Yeah, yeah, that's a great plan.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

So what are you guys putting yours in?

SPEAKER_00 21:00

I've had done a variety, um, mainly Holsteins. We've got some, yeah. Some Angus too, and we didn't have the difference as far as like one took better than the other.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

I don't know if it's uh I think if you're using an actual dairy farm, if you're using an actual dairy farm, I think their take is great.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Yeah, we've had uh on those. I wouldn't say great, but you know, it's been well it's been a little it's less than great, but you know.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Oh, is it really less than great?

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

I mean I just thought percentage-wise, what are you seeing?

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Do you know off the top 30% average? A couple times I've gotten 50, but usually less than 50 percent.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Yeah, 50's pretty good. I mean 50's not bad.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

It's usually less than 50.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

We just did a deal and we've used we've AI'd with our own board. We've done, we know that they're good. It's like the semen's good. We and we've also um put other embryos in of these same embryos, but we let a place and they're used to that's all they do is they buy the cows, they put them in for you. You if it takes after if it's still bred after 60 days, then you buy the cow and it costs you $100 plus your embryo. We did 30 and only five took.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Whoa, that's really low.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

That is the worst we've done, and that was a big oh.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

That hurts because you wasted so many embryos, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

And we all know how much those embryos cost by the time you get everything done. People kind of frown when they're buy purchasing embryos from people, but the cost in them and the time in them and all of it, it they're expensive. It's not a cheap, it's not cheap. But if you have, I think it helps if you have your own bowl, your own cows to get those sites from. Yeah, that's definitely some, but those losses. It hurts. I think those losses of not having those cows' bread, yeah. Yeah. Or you know, you're waiting 90 days or whatever to make sure that you've got your animal bread that you're using.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Yeah, you invest a lot of time to just, you know, wait on that and then to to get that disappointing news. That hurts, I hear you.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

It does, it does. I know that they said you're the average, I believe, is is it one out of four?

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

Is it or one out possibly one out of three will take. It just depends on who you're having put them in. My bet's awesome. Then you gotta sit and wait and hope that they took, you know, and you've gotta wait that time span, and it's better to wait the 60 days than the 30.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

It is better to wait the 60, yeah, because we've had a couple, you know, app that were confirmed on the 30, and then at the 90, they weren't. So, you know, we've done 30 and then 90 just to how we've done it, and yeah, there have been some by 90, it wasn't there anymore.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Yeah, it's quite the it the embryo process is is something different. And when you don't have the land and you don't have the you know, you can't just go like here. So we bought our our last 200 acres was um 27 2750 dollars an acre. Oh, okay. And you're probably going, whoa, really?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Yeah, that's all that was nice. That was a good deal for you.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

That's what land is out here. Yeah, that's the that is the price out here versus you, you probably you're adding another zero or two to that.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

You're probably two, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So if you can find a place that can put uh the embryos in for you, I'm sure that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

That's what I've looked for, just to make deals, you know, with um different dairy farms and different um people that'll work with me to try to if it's going to be, you know, beneficial for both sides, you know, dairy, it's usually it's beneficial because they need the cow's bread. If they were gonna just end up with a bull cap and sell it, sell it to the market, you know, they could just I would pay the same price as that and they give me my mini, my mini baby.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

That's worked out for me in the past.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Yeah, that's awesome. So, how many tours? Let's go back to your tours. How many tours like a week, a month? How do how does that usually work for you? It's how many do you usually do?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Yeah, it's seasonal. So right now, July and August, it's so hot outside that they're far and few between. I just won't schedule them. Um there's still a demand for the city. I don't blame you. Yeah, there's a demand because people are vacationing, their kids are out, you know, they want to do stuff outside, but at the same time, it's really hot for the animals to have to um be put under any type of stress at all like that. So I try to keep it um to the bare minimum during these hottest months. And it also just depends on how many babies I have available, what else is going on around the farm. If I have my own mama cows due to have a baby, like if it's right around a due date, I don't schedule anything because I want the environment to be as low stress for that mom for you know, getting closer to her delivery date as possible. But then other times of the year I try to open up a little bit more. We did do a lot for fall last year, and I'm excited for this fall again because that's really a great time. It cools off a little bit, and people are in the mood to go outside and do fall things and sit on a hay bale and you know that kind of thing. So we'll probably do a lot more in the fall this year than going into the winter. I should have some calves, so hopefully it'll be it'll be busier later on this year, fall, winter, winter is really the best time because of the weather.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

So I bet, especially where you're at. I just got back from San Diego though. Yeah, I bet. I just got back from San Diego, and I seriously want to go back because of the weather. Here it is, yeah, it's upper 90s and humid as heck, and it has been for a couple weeks. Okay, there, because we had a highland show over the weekend there, and so it was slow 70s, no humidity. You almost needed a jacket in the shade because of what we were used to.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Wow, it was it was gorgeous.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

It was like, I want to go back for the weather.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Yeah, I don't blame you. I would too. The humidity we have is really terrible. We have really high humidity, and it is it's harder on the animals at this time of year, the humidity just being so high.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

It is, and I had a friend of mine message me, um, another breeder, and she wanted to know she was concerned that her calf had ship shipping fever after well over a month, and I said, No, I said it's this heat. I said they the transition for one, she did get it uh the calf farther north than what we are.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

And they said, I've got some of mine that don't shed out there that I mean they are so hot. We have to, even here in Nebraska, I have to run Misters.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

They do have we do have two ponds, which of course, with pawns comes, you know, you can end up with foot rot when you have pawns, so you really have to watch that too. And because it was so dry before, we've got the cracked feet, and now it's been so moist, because we finally in June, but then so we're kind of fighting a double-edged sword when it comes to the heat and the um trying to keep them cooled off. But what I do notice, you know, if they've got the stra shade, they've got the trees and stuff to go under. Like I was checking on a bowl that was really um, I felt like was pretty, he was really panting the day before, and I was a little bit nervous thinking that we needed to pull him in and sh just shave him. I have friends in Missouri, they shave their high they shave him in the summer. But he was underneath some trees and he was looked very comfortable, and I and back to you know, not putting that stress on him, my husband come out and I said, Go, I said, Let's go away because he the one that I was checking was under there and I don't want him to get up because I don't I don't want him to get hot and stressed and be frock, you know, have the tongue hanging out and stuff because they they do.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Yeah, they do, they can get really hot and stressed out. And I if I have to shave mine, I will too. What I'll usually do is start out with shaving the tummy and oh yeah. Yeah, now the underneath part of in between the front legs and then the tummy, because then they can cool their core temp a little bit easier if they're laying down without all the hair. And it's just a way that they cool off a little bit more. So usually step one That's a great idea is I shave the tummy first, and then if I still notice that they are still uncomfortable or not tolerating it, uh the heat as much, you know, as some of the others, then I don't really wait much longer than that. I'll go ahead and shave because you know it's just hair. I've shaved them before, the hair grows back, and you know, they have to they have to survive. It's just it's just hair. So really it'll it'll come out.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

And when I say the misters, I want people to realize that if you go out there and you take a hose or something to that animal, I mean sometimes they need it, but if they still have all that hair and they have not shed, they're gonna trap that moisture in and it's gonna be cause them to be hotter than it's going or than to actually cool them because they trap that into that coat and that coat's insulation for them. Don't don't go out and think, okay, I'm gonna go hose these guys off and then walk away. Because when you do that, and if they're in direct sun, you're actually causing more heat um issues than like when I said misters, we've got the misters around, it cools down their areas around them, it kind of gets on them, but it's not like full bore soaking them, so then it traps that heat in.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Yeah. Around here, I I do um, I will hose mine, but I brush mine every day. I told you the way that I raise them for the difference, too. They're handled a lot, so we're brushing them every day, getting them to shed out that coat. Uh, in this climate, they naturally shed to be almost slick anyway. And then so they're not walking around here with their highland double coat in June and July when they really need to be hosed anyway.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

And big patches, because the patch like if they've been shedding and they got the big patches and you're not one that goes out there and brushes them, those patches will um hold water and hold that heat too. Yeah, yeah. Where yours like like if they're shedding out and stuff, the hoses are gonna hurt them. But sometimes if they've got those double coats and you're out there hosing them too much, it can cause the difference. The difference between you know the different climates and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

I think that goes back to where you're brushing through. Because like around here, uh their bodies have adapted a little bit more, so they know their bodies go ahead and shed, and we're brushing and brushing and all that, and sometimes I'm shaving the tummy. So, you know, they don't have that thick double coat in July and August or even September when we're hosing them a little bit more. Because what I do is I'll set up a sprinkler on a tree and it will hose them on their sides, on their neck and everywhere, but they don't have the double coat. So that is one thing, you know. When people see me doing that, it is one thing to now is that they aren't like, you know, the double-coated highland at this time of year when I'm doing that. They've been either shed out so much and combed out or or they've been trimmed, you know, so they can tolerate that type of cooling. But that's how that's really how to survive.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

That's how they survive the heat around here. If we didn't do that, um I'm sure we would have a lot more problems than we do. And luckily, we might have been able to tolerate the heat pretty well. We have a lot of shade. We don't they're not gonna be standing out in even if they did get wet on their backs, they're not gonna be standing out in the sun because we have shade.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

In the direct sun. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Yeah, no one is ever standing in direct sun around here. So we have a lot of shade. We have trees, they always have options of like going underneath trees, underneath canopies, shelters, and um, even on Amazon, you can buy those sun shades that you can hang, you know. It's like a it could be like a 12 by 12 or whatever, and you can hang them from posts, and it just creates like a really nice um artificially shaded area if you don't have those trees. So that's another thing you could do besides the sprinkler, the misters. Um, I always tell people to buy, just buy a few of those. You might not think you're gonna need them, but when July comes, you're gonna find out that you do, and you'll and you'll be able to hang them up somewhere because you know the cows don't have any choice. They have to find shade. And so if you provide it, they'll find it and they'll use it. The barn, we have fans everywhere. We have ceiling fans, we have a big floor fan. Yeah, we have fans everywhere. The the babies do have their own sunshades and misters, and I even have portable AC units in the barn. So if we have some young ones or um we have some that are a little bit fluffier, you know, we'll we'll put that on overnight so that way they can cool off and be comfortable. I know that everybody's gonna do that, but it's an idea, you know, for some people over you know, some people don't think to do that. And it but it's a possibility, you know. You can make that work, and it's gonna make a tremendous difference for you to not have to deal with your calf getting pneumonia or heat stress at this time of year.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

And they can't, they can actually get so stressed that they can abort too. So there's so much with that. Do you guys use like in your mineral, do you use like a basal dilator? Like we have by the firm heat here that we can use that has like some cayenne pepper in it.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Yeah, I've heard of that, and actually um we don't have a dealer close by. I was looking into becoming a dealer, but um it seemed like the startup cost was going to be a lot, a lot more than I wanted to invest in. And you know, the problem with being a dealer is if somebody came to my farm and bought, you know, um four 200-pound protein tubs, I would have no way to load that with them. You know what I mean? So I I have limitations of becoming a dealer, but yeah, it is that we don't have access to that product. Um, so we don't have access to it, and we don't, so therefore we don't use it. But we do have protein tubs that we get from the feed store. They still have protein tubs, they have mineral blocks, they always have 100% of the time all year round. They have protein blocks, salt block, they have their protein tub. And so they have that all year long, and they definitely use it. All of the cows use it. Mine don't prefer the loose mineral. I think they're spoiled because they do have the protein tubs. That's more of like a molasses base.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

And so they're always a protein tub.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

They really love the protein tub, and that's what works for us. You know, it's a small herd, so I go ahead and get them the tub. Exactly. And I get them the mineral block, you know, so they they have all of that out there every single day of the year. And um it doesn't have any vasodilator or anything in it, like the Vita firm. He you I I mean, I think that's a great idea if you have access to it. It's just that we don't. I was thinking like you don't. Yeah, and the shipping on it is just ridiculous. You know, I could order it, but I mean to order one tub was gonna be like $400. And that was the $500. Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 38:44

And you have all these other you have all these other means that you just stated to help with that heat.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

Which I think is awesome. I I think is awesome. We just got, and it's honestly what it's called. We had two that we hooked the hose up to that are cooling or like ace air conditioning. Um but this latest one we got, it's actually called a big ass fan. That's the name of it, and it's got a donkey picture on it, and that's what it's called. And so we have that. That's funny. Like, yeah, I do run, we do run sprinklers on the ones that have shut out. We do have those um out here. But my my registered girls, they have not and we they get brushed and all that, they're just so thick coated. They're so thick. He sean made a makeshift uh he well he we own a welding corporation, so they have a big uh metal deal, and he started cooling off the top of that, and so it runs down off the side when it's misting, and that seemed to help. Uh, he just did that yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

It's so hot here, yeah. It cool it was it cools off the top of that, and it helped him. I don't know. I've got one, she came from I believe, Michigan. She's not loving she's not loving this heat at all. But she's no, and I need to kick out some of my um bigger heifers because I think they have a little bit of play into kicking out some of the youngsters. Probably because they can they can all walk in and out, and so I think we're gonna have to put Lyra in the barn with maybe my other ones that are that I'm weaning.

SPEAKER_00 40:59

Maybe, yeah. So she can get access to the fans because they it is something like it's like they understand, you know, that it's something to fight over the fans. Yeah, they're the dominant one.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

And there's plenty of room for everybody, but they can be they all have their own personality.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 41:21

I feel like I don't know about yours, but mine all have I mean, they all have different personalities, just like children or just like us. And some of them are b bossier than others.

SPEAKER_00 41:35

Yeah, definitely. What you could do maybe for the really funny one is uh maybe do a sprinkler that only shoots up from the ground, kind of one of those ones that shoot up like this, so it's just getting her legs and tummy, one that goes in circle, but it's just going around on her legs, and it'll it'll inevitably splash the tummy a little bit too. But you know, there are some options with sprinklers that don't have to be necessarily shooting down on the back where you're worried about insulating the heat.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

Any any little thing where they can like release the heat, shaving that involved, yeah, shaving that um that underbelly.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Because I'm not sure when she will be shown. It it's more basically when she'll be shown again. We'll have I don't know if we're showing her this year or not. Or this it would be our state fair, and then we've got I don't know. We've got a we've got some shows. We've got a show in August, a show in September, a show in October. But by then, by October, our weather's starting to be a lot better.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

So yeah, that's nice for you guys where you definitely have the seasons, so then you know, you know that relief is coming. Yeah, yeah, that's nice.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

Yes, and you guys don't know.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

We don't know. We're in we can still be like a hundred degrees even in October, and you know, November, December, it can still be in the 80s. And then they do start to grow the hair back. So that's kind of the problem over even the winter time here in this climate is oh, you know, their their shedding is based on the amount of daylight hours, and so as the fall and winter comes, their bodies start growing the hair back, even though it's still hot outside. And um it can be, you know, 80 something degrees in December, and we still have this the sprinkler going because 80 degrees now they have, you know, more hair, they're still hot.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

So it's more of like a that is so true.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

Yeah, it's more of like a you know, around here it's an almost an all-year thing where you have to maintenance keeping them cool and comfortable, more so than I think like my see my friends in Missouri or wherever that are, you know, dealing with this heat right now in July and August, it's a worse time. What do what do we do now? It's all it's upon you right now. And what do we do with this heat? Because it, you know, it hasn't been like that for you guys. And now all of a sudden it is, and you and so you have to do something about it, but it's only gonna be those couple of months, and then you go back to your normal life. But around here, we have to worry about this all year long. It's an all-year long situation, you know, to have to maintain. And so I always tell my buyers that too. My buyers that are in Florida and they want to buy one of my high percentage highlands, I have to tell them either, you know, I need to know that you're gonna be on top of this and you're gonna buy all the stuff and you're gonna do all the maintenance. Otherwise, I'd rather sell them to somebody up north, you know, where the calf would be more comfortable. But the high parks do tolerate the heat much better than like the full Highlands. That, you know, this the seven even the 75% Highlands will do pretty good here in comparison to the higher, you know, even the ones that are like 87.5 are super fluffy, and they have a little bit more of a harder time, unless you're gonna put in the work, unless you're willing to do this maintenance that we were talking about.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

And you know, I find it interesting too, like everybody would think maybe that black islands would be worse. I don't have any problems with my black islands. My black islands tolerate they don't have a problem in the hate. It's it's insane. It's my other ones, it's it's crazy. But my black islands, they tell they tolerate it well.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

That's good to know.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

Yeah, I it blows my mind. It does because you would think that you know black would be yeah, it would be worse. Be hotter, yeah. Yeah, well, I appreciate you coming on with us today. This has been so fun. Yeah, it has been fun. Thank you. I've enjoyed, I've enjoyed, yeah, I've enjoyed visiting with you, and we just uh we appreciate, we love learning from other people, we love hearing about other farms. It's just it's great because like I just learned something today.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

So yeah, it's a great way to network. I agree. So thank you for offering this, you know, and uh allowing this to be publicized for other people to learn and for us to network this way.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

Hey guys, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Horns and Hooves. We will see you next week with some more guests. Thank you.