Gil and I, relocated our family ranch, High Valley Cattle Co., to the Eagle Hill area, west of Olds, Alberta to partner with our grown children and grandchildren in our ranching operations.

Previously, we were Bison Producers in the Peace Country of Northern Alberta, and marketers of Bison meat. Bison and Highland cattle have some similarities and choosing to raise Highland cattle in our new location seemed to be a natural transition.

Our new family venture raises Highland cattle at home, on our own pastures. We feed them grass from healthy pastures, hay grown on our own fields, and we offer them the occasional handful of oats or alfalfa pellets as a bribe to encourage them to go where we'd like them to go. We don't use hormones or other intensive production techniques. We allow our animals time and space to grow at their own pace. The average age of the grass-finished animal is 26 to 28 months of age.

Darlene Hegel