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Hill Haven's Story

One day in 1999, after a decade of commuting to the farm every weekend from Toronto for some R&R, Bob and Dale purchased two Shorthorn/Lincoln Red cow/calf pairs and thus, Hill Haven Shorthorns was born. Ever since that fateful day, the city was left behind and although they had zero cattle experience, with many wonderful fellow shorthorn breeders as teachers and tireless helpers, they devoted all of their time and passion to shorthorns.

Our roots


One of those original two cows, Happy-Go-Lucky produced Hill Haven Bold, a bull that went on to be well known as a sire across North America with his semen still in demand today. The first cow Hill Haven purchased at a shorthorn sale in 2000, was Scotsdale Kelina who became the original matriarch of Hill Haven’s best known, most successful cow family, the Sierra/Breathless Family which is still thriving today. Kelina was also the dam of Hill Haven’s first show champion, Hill Haven Rebecca who was Grand Champion Female at the 2005 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. That year was the first showing of a string of Hill Haven shorthorns and they have been showing there ever since. Kelina’s greatest contribution however was her daughter, Hill Haven Sierra born in 2006 who became the key building block of the Sierra/Breathless cow family. Sierra’s first calf, Hill Haven Breathless was followed later by her daughter, Hill Haven Breathtaker in 2011 and then in 2014 her granddaughter Hill Haven MQ Breathtaken, thus establishing the dynasty that continues today. Breathtaker was a star in the show ring with multiple Grand and Reserve Championships at National shows in Canada. While she is still going strong at Hill Haven, and has many notable female progeny in the breed, arguably Breathtaker’s greatest accomplishment to date is her son, Hill Haven Firestorm 28C, a superstar in the showring in his own right and who is a highly sought after sire in North America and Australia with many of his progeny now heading up cow families and populating show rings far and wide.

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Our Legacy

Hill Haven’s Herdsman, Matthew Hargrave has been a major key to all of Hill Haven’s accomplishments since 2006 and his contributions and influence continue to be at the heart of the operation. Although Matthew grew up on an Angus farm, he soon became expert in shorthorn genetics and programs across North America. He shares the founding objectives of Hill Haven which are the breeding of high quality, functional, show worthy purebred shorthorns from proven foundation female families; bringing in new genetics to broaden shorthorn genetics in Canada; making new semen available to breeders across the country and all the while striving to maintain the purity of shorthorns as high as possible.

Bob and Dale never forgot or took for granted the vast knowledge and help so generously passed on by fellow breeders in the early days of Hill Haven Shorthorns. Hill Haven takes pride in paying forward knowledge and assistance to new shorthorn breeders and in particular provides support and hands on involvement with junior shorthorn organizations in Canada to ensure the next generation of shorthorn breeders is as enthusiastic and committed as Bob, Dale and Matthew.

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