Tufty®
Our Tufty® breed is derived straight from Purebred and Fullblood Scottish Highlands. Through selective breeding, we have been able to eliminate the horns. Why? you may ask. Here in New Zealand, our local meatworks started to refuse to take Highlands due to the danger of the horns, thus forcing us to have to de-horn them before sending them away. This is a dangerous and time-consuming process that doesn’t fit with our organic principles while being distressing for the cattle to go through. This urged us to find a way to breed our Highlands to not grow horns, which was a tough decision to make considering we once held the largest Highland herd in Australasia at 700 head.
The transition from Highlands to Tufty in the 90s was a long, hard process of separate breeding with munted horn highlands until we had a breakthrough with breeding a Bull that we called ‘Hummer’ (after the truck) who was very solid and basically polled except for small stubs. With female stub bloodlines too, the breeding process sped up. In the late 90s, we got the opportunity to export 3 stud Highlands to Hokkaido in Japan where they were starting an ark of different animals from around the world.
We were amazed in 2020 when this video of our Tufty® calf went viral, racking up over 1.2 million views on Facebook.
We are auctioning some Tufty cows & calves on Bidr on Thursday, 08 December 2022 7:00 PM.
Auction Link: bidr.co.nz/auction/1759
Articles about our Tufty Breed.
History of our Herd
We established our Highland Stud in the 1980’s. We bought fullblood bulls, cows and calves from Stud Highlands imported from Scotland and also bought purebred Highlands and we graded up a large number of Highlands here on the farm. We are foundation breeders of Highlands in New Zealand. Our Highland numbers peaked at 700 head, making it the largest herd in NZ.
Unfortunately, horned cattle are a remnant of the past. Horns are dangerous and farmers, cattle handlers, and cattle truck drivers don’t want them and most freezing works won’t take them at all. With the numbers of Highlands we had, we were lucky to breed a rare variety of Polled Purebred & fullblood polled Highlands, both male and female that we kept and bred on from. I have developed many different bloodlines from these polled Highlands, both heterozygous and homozygous.
We named and registered the Trademark for them as TUFTY® cattle. TUFTY® cattle were bred from Highlands, one of the oldest, hardiest cattle breeds there is, with their great foraging ability and longevity.
The Benefits of Tufty®
Our Tufty®, “hardy, hairy, happy” organic breed for top quality restaurant beef, colourful floor rugs or attractive friendly pets! This unique very rare breed is great-looking, friendly, placid, easy-calving, good hardy mothers and quickly becomes part of the family. They suit organic farming with a very high natural immunity to parasites and disease and longevity.
From our point of view, TUFTY® cattle are the easiest choice for marginal, rough countries performing well anywhere in New Zealand. They are easily handled, solid and beefy stock. They have a long, thick, hairy coat. Colours can be black, brindle, dark brown, red, tan, yellow, dun, creamy and white with a full range of shades in-between. These colourful pelts are valuable as rugs. The beef seems to be lower in fat and cholesterol and higher in protein and iron. Chefs around NZ love the tasty, lean TUFTY® beef.
Hardy, Hairy, Happy, TUFTY® cattle look unique, curious, friendly & interesting out in the paddock. They can make great pets or top-quality beef breeders that are easy to transport. If you have horned Highland cows use TUFTY® Bulls to poll your fold.
Availability and Transportation
We have a very limited number of our polled TUFTY® cattle for sale each year.
Calves, Heifers, mated Heifers & Cows, Bulls & Steers are available. TUFTY® calves are generally the most popular, so it’s best to book them in.
Transport is easily arranged to anywhere in New Zealand, even Northland. We have exported a group of Stud Highlands to Japan.
Tufty® Pricing
Heifer Calves $2,900. Heifers $3900. Heifer/Cow-mated $4,900.
Herd Bulls $3,500. Lease a TUFTY® Bull for a month $650.
Stud Bulls from $7,000.
Package discounts are available. Please let us know as early as possible if you wish to purchase some. We offer a discount for quantity. We can book you in for TUFTY® calves now with a 50% deposit, to guarantee you’ll get the calf or calves you want after weaning. We calve in the late winter, spring and early summer. Ring or email if you need more information or photos emailed to you of those currently ready for sale.
