However, their numbers were small until the 1920s when large-scale breeding and importing began. There were also Highland cattle in Nova Scotia in the 1880s. Smith, Lord Strathcona of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Robert Campbell of Strathclair, Manitoba, imported one bull each. Highland cattle were first imported into Canada in the 1880s. Since then, numbers have been growing and semen is being exported to New Zealand to establish the breed there. In 1988 the Australian Highland Cattle Society was formed. They were seen and survived in Port Victoria during the late 1800s, but other folds were believed to have died out in areas such as New South Wales. Samuel Amess, also from Scotland, who made a fortune in the Victorian goldfields and became Mayor of Melbourne in 1869, kept a small fold of black Highland cattle on Churchill Island. Arriving in Port Albert, Victoria, in 1841 with his clan, they apparently drove their Highland cattle to a farm at Greenmount, on the Tarra River, preceded by a piper. Highland cattle were first imported into Australia by the mid-19th century by Scottish migrants such as Chieftain Aeneas Ronaldson MacDonell of Glengarry, Scotland. In 1954, Queen Elizabeth ordered Highland cattle to be kept at Balmoral Castle where they are still kept today. This is because in winter, the cattle were kept in open shelters made of stone called folds to protect them from the weather at night. Although a group of cattle is generally called a herd, a group of Highland cattle is known as a 'fold'. The Highland cattle registry ('herd book') was established in 1885. Originally, small farmers kept Highlands as house cows to produce milk and for meat. It is estimated that there are now around 15,000 Highland cattle in the United Kingdom. Since the early 20th century, breeding stock has been exported to many parts of the world, especially Australia and North America. These types have now been crossbred so that there is no distinct difference. They came in a range of colours, most frequently dun or red. The other type was the mainland these tended to be larger because their pastures provided richer nutrients. The kyles are narrow straits of water, and the cattle were driven across them to get to market. These cattle were named due to the practice of relocating them. These cattle tended to be smaller, to have black coats and, due to their more rugged environment, to have long hair. One was the West Highland, or Kyloe, originating and living mostly in the Outer Hebrides, which had harsher conditions. The 1885 herd book describes two distinct types of Highland cattle. Highland cattle were historically of great importance to the economy, with the cattle being raised for meat primarily and sold in England.

Highland cattle descend from the Hamitic Longhorn, which were brought to Britain by Neolithic farmers in the second millennium BC, as the cattle migrated northwards through Africa and Europe. Bull and bull calf, illustration from 1890вЂ“1900

Black baby cow