Highwood Farm

Highwood Farm
Spencer, NY

Luce Guanzini and Mark Baustian have been raising Boer crosses on their farm since 1994. While neither come from farming backgrounds, Mark and Luce connected years ago over their shared love of animals while pursuing degrees in Biology and Animal Science at Cornell, respectively. Luce now works at Cornell as a Veterinary Technologist.

Breeding at Highwood takes place in November so that kidding occurs mid-April to May. Although Boers are meat goats, Mark and Luce like to keep some dairy genetics in their herd, such as Nubian and Alpine, because they feel the increased milk production is good for the kids. The herd helps maintain the farm’s forest and pastures which would otherwise be seriously threatened by invasive woody shrubs. The goats are pastured during warm months and fed on hay throughout the winter.