Females and breeding heifers
Long-lived, functional cows that calve every year and give no trouble.
Long-lived, functional cows
Along with performance testing, conformation and soundness, we look at overall cow functionality so our cows have a long, productive life. Cows that live long, are easy to work with and give no trouble are what make us money.
The cows that keep making the cut are the ones breeding our replacements, so there is a fair amount of automatic selection for longevity.
- Stay fertileA cow earns her place by calving.
- Structurally soundIncluding legs and feet.
- Healthy eyes and uddersFree of eye disease and udder problems.
- Correct mouth and teethSo they keep grazing for years.
- TemperamentAnd ALL the wild ones go!
Read the original Females page
In addition to performance testing, conformation and soundness, we also place emphasis on overall cow functionality to ensure our cows have a long, productive life. A herd of long lived, functional females that are easy to work with and free of problems make us money at the end of the day.
To maximise longevity, the cows need to remain fertile to secure their existence, need to be structurally sound, including through the legs and feet, and be free of eye diseases, udder problems and have the correct structure of the mouth and teeth. That said, there is obviously then a certain amount of automatic selection for longevity through their fertility and structural correctness where the cows that continually make the cut are producing the replacements. And ALL wild ones go!
On Forest Glade we try to retain fifteen heifers per calving season to replenish our numbers, we then offer the remainder as breeding heifers.
Please contact us if you require heifers.
In the breed
Our cows on the national figures
Every registered Beef Shorthorn in South Africa gets Logix breeding values from SA Stud Book, so it is easy to see how a herd stacks up. On the August 2026 evaluation we had bred 199 of the 633 live registered Beef Shorthorns in the country.
of the top 50 live Beef Shorthorns on Cow Value were bred by us.
Duncraggan Lancaster 463 and Primeston Wildeyes 23‑01 share first place in the breed on Cow Value, at 132.
joint leaders on Fertility Value are ours: Primeston Firefly 65, Duncraggan Secret 468 and Secret 612 (146).
of the top 10 on Heifer Fertility, led by Duncraggan Duchess 451 (148).
What the figures say
Cow Value is the Logix index that rolls calving ease, calf growth, milk, cow maintenance and fertility into one figure for breeding profitable cows. On every index, 100 is the breed average.
Our live Duncraggan animals average 108 on Cow Value, against 97 for the rest of the breed, and 107 for both calf growth and milk.
Our own records back that up. Once a cow has had her first calf, the typical gap to her next one is 371 days (2019 to 2026).
The same cow families keep coming up: Lancaster, Ladysmaid, Secret and Wildeyes.
Our top-ranked cows
Cows that have calved, with their place among all 633 live Beef Shorthorns on Cow Value. “=” means a shared place.
| Rank | Cow | Born | Calves | Cow Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =1 | Duncraggan Lancaster 463 BLK 180463 |
2018 | 5 | 132 |
| =3 | Duncraggan Wildeyes 449 BLK 180449 |
2018 | 4 | 129 |
| =9 | Duncraggan Ladysmaid 533 BLK 200533 |
2020 | 3 | 128 |
| =9 | Duncraggan Secret 468 BLK 180468 |
2018 | 6 | 128 |
| =13 | Duncraggan Lancaster 590 BLK 210590 |
2021 | 3 | 126 |
| =18 | Duncraggan Ladysmaid 588 BLK 210588 |
2021 | 3 | 124 |
| =23 | Duncraggan Ladysmaid 471 BLK 180471 |
2018 | 5 | 123 |
| =23 | Duncraggan Lancaster 370 BLK 160370 |
2016 | 7 | 123 |
| =27 | Duncraggan Secret 506 BLK 190506 |
2019 | 4 | 122 |
| =27 | Primeston Wildeyes 113 KBS 210175 |
2021 | 3 | 122 |
| =30 | Primeston Firefly 65 KBS 180846 |
2018 | 5 | 121 |
| =30 | Primeston Wildeyes 114 KBS 210183 |
2021 | 1 | 121 |
| =37 | Duncraggan Maud 537 BLK 200537 |
2020 | 1 | 120 |
| =37 | Duncraggan Secret 612 BLK 220612 |
2022 | 2 | 120 |
Source: SABeefBulls, SA Stud Book Logix evaluation of August 2026, downloaded 1 October 2026; calving records from our Logix herd books.
heifers kept at Forest Glade each calving season to replace our numbers.
Breeding heifers for sale
We offer the rest as breeding heifers. Please contact us if you need heifers.