Gleann Brook Acres was established as a family farm in 2006. It is run solely by myself, Tracey, my husband, Stéphane and our two kids, Sydnée and Synclair. After completing my B.Sc. (Agr.) and my M.Sc. in reproductive physiology at the Univerity of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, it was a dream of mine to have cattle of my own. I worked for the University of Guelph as Head Research Technician for their state of the art dairy facilities until the birth of my daughter in 1998. Then life changed for us as Stéphane was recruited as an actuary to the US -- Topeka, Kansas, to be specific. After 4 years in Kansas and a new bouncing baby boy, we were presented with an opportunity to move to Birmingham, Alabama. Not only did this provide more opportunity for Stéphane, it also put us back on the Northern migration route from Ontario and Quebec to Florida, a plus for grandparents heading back and forth with the snowbirds.

Now the kids were getting into school full time and I had some time on my hands. Not sure what to do with my background in research we decided it was time to look into fulfilling my dream to own cattle. We started to do research into what kind of cattle we would be interested in taking on and we found Highland Cattle. Actually Stéphane gets the prize for finding this tremendous breed of cattle. After just a bit of reading we were hooked. We were also incredibly lucky to have Don and Margaret Badger of Jadhore Highlands, Maple Lea Farm, in Quebec to be our mentors heading into this great adventure. Unfortunately because of border issues we weren't able to bring any of Don and Margaret's cattle into the country so they were kind enough to put us in touch with William Baker at Cube Mountain Highlands. Heifers from Cube Mountain in New Hampshire, Frank and Liz Manafort at Black Watch Farm in Vermont with help from Matthew Rolleston, and Kevin McCrae at Locustbrae Farm in New York became the foundation if our fold. We were also fortunate enough to purchase Black Watch Breagh Tighearnan from Frank and Liz to be our herd sire. As a son of Black Watch Emmett we had high hopes for Breagh and he's fulfilled our hopes by producing very nice calves.

We started young being as far south as we are and to everyone that asks can Highlands really survive that far south? We can say - they sure can! We've grown from a small herd of 16 heifers and a very handsome young bull to 42 head at last count. We've had a great time with this awesome breed of cattle and would love to share our experiences with anyone interested in considering Highland Cattle.