Important Info

Important info

As well as our FAQs (which you can find here) we have put together some more info that will hopefully help with your journey into mini cattle.

Miniature cattle are not a breed, they are simply a height standard. You can find info about the height standards here.

If you need help calculating whether you have enough land to add a mini or two this post about grazing calculations should help.

If you have questions about breeding or owning miniature cattle or seeing minis that are available for sale you can join our group on Facebook.

In 2024 available calves will be advertised on TradeMe (see our listings here). To get first access to available stock sign up to receive our newsletter.

What are mini cattle?

Miniature cattle (or mini cows as most people call them) are cattle that meet a height requirement. The breed of mini moo can vary, but miniature Highland and miniature Galloway cattle are the most popular.

Some of these cattle are naturally short (the result of two short parents) and some of them have a version of cattle dwarfism - also known as chondro. Because of the way genetics work, not all calves from miniature parents will be chondro carriers.

Chondro in mini cattle

In simple terms, chondrodysplasia (or chondro for short) is dwarfism in cattle.

Breeders of miniature Galloways and miniature Highlands have historically incorrectly assumed that the chondro gene was only carried by Dexter cattle.

However, even "purebred" mini Highlands and mini Galloways carry this gene indicating they have been crossbred with Dexters at some point.

Food & Friends

We prefer to sell our calves in pairs unless you already have miniature cattle. Cattle are herd animals and need at least one other bovine in their herd - sheep, goats, alpaca and ponies unfortunately don't count.

If you are looking to buy mini cows as pets it's best to choose two steers. Mini steers are genuinely the friendliest and the easiest to train. Heifers will cycle every three weeks or so and bulls are definitely not suitable as pets.

Breeding Mini Cattle

Breeding miniature cattle can seem like a simple concept, but we have learned it is definitely not as straight forward as you might think.

It is important to know the chondro status of your breeding stock before you start breeding so that you can make an informed decision about your risk of bulldog calves.

Questions for breeders

There are a lot of scammers stealing photos, setting up Facebook accounts (or hacking them) and then sharing pictures of mini Highlands for sale - be very aware of these accounts.

There are also some breeders inflating prices and selling standard animals as miniatures, so it's good to know what questions to ask.

Grazing Calculations

Contrary to popular belief, mini cattle don't eat "much less" than other cattle - they need the same as a beef animal of the same size.

We have had lots of enquiries about cross grazing mini cows with other animals and while this can be done, it's important that the total area is enough to manage ALL stock units.