Soule: How Many Cows Are Too Many?

The truck and trailer pulled into the Miles Smith Farm barnyard at 4 a.m. on Tuesday. The three weary travelers, Kevin, Harley, and Harley's five-year-old son, stumbled into the house and crashed on two airbeds I had set up in the living room. They had just completed a marathon drive from Ohio to pick up 10 Scottish Highlander cows and one bull.

A few weeks earlier, Harley, an Amish farmer, contacted me looking for Highlanders. He'd called other farmers and had gotten my name from the Heartland Highland Cattle Association. Highland cattle have become very popular, and Harley was on a mission to fill his pastures in Fredricktown, Ohio, with the hairy, long-horned beasts. I had not intended to sell that many cows, but Harley convinced me they'd have a great home.

Because Harley could not own or drive a motor vehicle, he hired Kevin, a professional trucker, to drive a truck pulling a borrowed a stock trailer. A bit nervous about hosting Amish guests; I was worried I might offend them with my "English" ways. Harley sipped coffee while his son drank the raw milk I'd purchased from Huckins Farm. When I asked if raw milk was all right for his son, Harley said, "At home, he drinks raw milk from our two cows."

Amish clothing is a class act. Harley and his son wore clothing that managed to be plain but exquisite, hand-stitched with button fastenings. Their outfits were clean and well-fitting, while my baggy sweatshirt and stained pants, with pockets bulging with a folding knife and cell phone, were beyond plain.

Harley didn't mind my farmy clothing, but he looked with dismay at my paddocks which, after a week of rain, had turned into a sea of boot-sucking mud. Harley's Ohio farm has lush grass, and he eliminated any mud by improving drainage and gravel applications. Kevin brought mud boots, but Harley hadn't. Once husband Bruce had lent him a pair, Harley charged in to help load the trailer.

My biggest concern was loading the reluctant cattle with massive horns into a 22-foot stock trailer.

Click here to find out how we loaded them.