Scottish Highland Cattle

Highland cattle are an ancient Scottish breed recognized by long horns and a long, shaggy coat. Those traits developed under hard weather and low-input conditions, which helps explain why the breed remains popular with grass-based farms. At Laurel Highlands Farms, their forage ability, maternal instincts and winter hardiness fit the landscape and the management system.

We use breed history as context, not nostalgia: the question is whether the animal performs in our forage, weather, terrain and family-scale management system.

Highland genetics show up directly in our beef cuts and primal cuts, and we offer Highland calves and breeding animals as available. Every animal on the farm — Highland or Angus — is raised under the same rotational grazing system on the mountain ground our family has worked since 1997.

Highland beef is available as individual cuts, as a quarter, half or whole for freezer buyers, in grass-finished or grain-finished form, and through our restaurant program for chefs building a menu around it.

Highland cattle are among the oldest registered cattle breeds in the world, with a herd book dating to 1884, and they trace back further still to the Scottish Highlands and the Outer Hebrides. The breed's distinctive double coat — a long, oily outer layer over a soft, insulating undercoat — lets the animal put its feed into muscle rather than into building a thick fat layer for warmth, which is one reason Highland beef is known for being well-marbled without being overly fatty. That same coat and a naturally hardy temperament are why Highlands thrive on rougher, hillier pasture that would be difficult for many other breeds.