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By CAROLE SOULE

The kids hooted as they pulled on lead ropes and dashed around the barnyard, each with a calf in tow. They didn’t need any encouragement to run in this competition; what child doesn’t want to race about with a calf? The calves were just as eager. It’s...

By CAROLE SOULE

This month, Bruce and I joined hordes of people flocking to Logan Airport on our way to visit with family in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. We aren’t the only ones who left our farm this week. Two days after our departure, nine of our Scottish...

By CAROLE SOULE

Have you ever wondered which is smarter: cows or horses? I think they’re intelligence is about equal, but their behavior is different. Here’s what I mean:Horses’ primary protection from predators is flight. In the wild, when a pack of coyotes...

Want to buy a cow? It could live in your backyard and eat the grass. Then you could feed it expensive fermented hay all winter. It could supply all the manure you could ever want – and more. To the point, how would you turn an inconvenient pet into...

By CAROLE SOULE

At Miles Smith Farm, we have two kinds of cattle: Scottish Highlanders and Angus/Hereford cross-breeds. There are many differences between these breeds, but one is particularly striking. The Highlanders, both males, and females have enormous horns,...

The first call came in at about 2 p.m. on Tuesday. Eleven of our cattle had escaped from a borrowed pasture at Early Sunrise Farm on Sargent Road in Gilmanton.The demand for grass-fed beef had depleted our existing herd, so I had recently purchased...

By CAROLE SOULE

I was a vegetarian for five years, mostly because I didn’t want to support massive feed-lot operations which corral 150,000 cattle or more and can process 3,000 a day. I didn’t have any plan to save the planet from beef. But I did – and still do –...

By CAROLE SOULE

‘How many cows do you have?” is a seemingly straightforward question that I get all the time. But I seldom know the answer because cattle are hard to count, and it keeps changing all the time.When I meet ranchers from Utah or Texas, they don’t...

By CAROLE SOULE

The day-old calf had vanished. Yesterday the black-and-white heifer had been up and walking, and her Scottish Highlander mom, Laverne, had been cooing and fussing over her. The next day the calf had disappeared. The strange thing was that Laverne did...

By CAROLE SOULE

The dandelions disappeared as my cattle munched their way across the pasture. They snatched up the yellow flowers, which they seemed to prefer over the tall, green grass. Within hours the dandelions had been all eaten up.Even though our cattle are...

By CAROLE SOULE

Topper’s horns were wedged tight in the metal hay feeder. While reaching for a tasty bit of hay, he pushed his head into the feeder and turned his horns just so. Like a Chinese finger trap, the feeder wouldn’t let him back up. But he didn’t panic; he...

By CAROLE SOULE

When calves are born at Miles Smith Farm in March and April, it’s obvious who their moms are. They’ll be nursing, protecting and generally fussing over them. But, as sometimes occurs among humans, identifying the father can be harder.Thank goodness we...

By CAROLE SOULE

Kelsie struggled a bit in the squeeze chute as she settled in for her yearly pedicure. With a rope attached below her “dew claws,” we gently lifted her hoof, fastening the line to a bar at the top of the chute so that we could safely trim her long...

By CAROLE SOULE

Victor hobbled quickly ahead of me on three legs, his right front foot swinging in the air. He had escaped through an open gate. Even on three legs, he moved faster than me, but I had to get him back to continue treating his infected hoof. Victor is a...

By CAROLE SOULE

The fair season is over, and the Highland Riders 4-H kids and their ribbon-winning animal associates can look back on it with satisfaction. I call the cattle “associates” because the kids don’t actually own them. None of the Highland Riders live on...

By CAROLE SOULE

Brittany’s baby was small. Her white bull calf weighed only 45 pounds (half the weight of most Scottish Highlander calves), but he was walking and nursing within hours of birth. His mom keeps him clean and runs to him when he calls. They are a good...

By CAROLE SOULE

Stash looked at me through his fringe of shaggy hair as I shouted, “Walk on!” He just stood staring at me with a puzzled look on his face. I was standing about six feet in front of him and using the voice commands I thought he’d learned. But he was...

By CAROLE SOULE

As we unrolled an 800-pound round bale of hay, a dead fawn fell to the floor of the feed bunker. The fawn was all in one piece and must have been accidentally scooped up by the hay baler.I’m sure the farmer would have tried to save this fawn if he had...

By CAROLE SOULE

A blanket of snow covered my black and red Scottish Highlanders turning them white.When it snows you might ask, “why don’t you bring your cows inside, where it’s warm.” I don’t because cow hair acts like roofing, keeping heat in.Cattle “insulation” is...

By CAROLE SOULE

Even though I had washed several times, two maggots were squirming on my smartphone screen as I called my vet, Christina Murdock. A Highlander calf, born five days earlier, had an army of maggots on her back and legs, which we were trying to...