2023 officer and director nominees
Elections will be held at the Annual Meeting on February 4th. Information is provided here for individuals who have been nominated so far, but nominations will also be accepted at the meeting.
president
Melinda Cowell - Beyond Hope Farm
I was raised in small town Southern Minnesota. After High School, I moved to Des Moines ,
Iowa where I met my husband Shawn. After completing our college degrees and the birth of our
oldest daughter, we moved back to southern Minnesota. Our other three children Ethan, Lauren
and Shaelyn were born in Minnesota in the city of Owatonna.
Seven years ago, we began showing cattle at the NCHCA regional show and caught the
‘highland bug’. We kept our cattle at my parents’ farm for 4 years. In 2019, we bought our own farm (Beyond Hope Farm MN) and have been raising cattle near Ellendale, Minnesota. I have served on the Junior Committee for several years. I have also served as Show Manager for the NCHCA regional show for four years, and have been the NCHCA Vice President for the last two years.
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We love the Highland breed and take great joy in producing and raising the best cattle we can. I
believe through mentoring and networking with other Highland breeders we can create a
sustainable future for the Highland breed. It would be my pleasure to serve the North Central
Highland Cattle Association President for this term.
I was raised in small town Southern Minnesota. After High School, I moved to Des Moines ,
Iowa where I met my husband Shawn. After completing our college degrees and the birth of our
oldest daughter, we moved back to southern Minnesota. Our other three children Ethan, Lauren
and Shaelyn were born in Minnesota in the city of Owatonna.
Seven years ago, we began showing cattle at the NCHCA regional show and caught the
‘highland bug’. We kept our cattle at my parents’ farm for 4 years. In 2019, we bought our own farm (Beyond Hope Farm MN) and have been raising cattle near Ellendale, Minnesota. I have served on the Junior Committee for several years. I have also served as Show Manager for the NCHCA regional show for four years, and have been the NCHCA Vice President for the last two years.
.
We love the Highland breed and take great joy in producing and raising the best cattle we can. I
believe through mentoring and networking with other Highland breeders we can create a
sustainable future for the Highland breed. It would be my pleasure to serve the North Central
Highland Cattle Association President for this term.
Vice President
Katie Baker – Glory Oaks Farm
Katie grew up on her family farm in North Central Iowa, where her family raised a herd of 25 commercial red angus cows. Katie and her husband Kyle began their adventure in Highland cattle in 2019, when they founded Glory Oaks Farm. Highlands were the perfect fit for their small acreage and have caused quite the stir and interest from the local community!
With a love for and focus on high end genetics, they raise animals for breeding stock and beef and have been pleasantly surprised at the interest in Highland beef in their rural community. Their family has also taken to the show ring, entering their first 2 shows in 2022 with many more to come!
Katie has served on the NCHCA Board for the past 3 years. Her favorite part of this breed is not the animals, but the people and relationships built along the way. The Highland community is truly special, with people willing to share their time, knowledge, and talents to help one another.
Professionally, Katie has a background in Marketing, Hospitality, and is currently a Senior Manager of Customer Success Operations for Workiva, a software company. She also serves as the Vice President for the Worth County Fair Board.
Katie grew up on her family farm in North Central Iowa, where her family raised a herd of 25 commercial red angus cows. Katie and her husband Kyle began their adventure in Highland cattle in 2019, when they founded Glory Oaks Farm. Highlands were the perfect fit for their small acreage and have caused quite the stir and interest from the local community!
With a love for and focus on high end genetics, they raise animals for breeding stock and beef and have been pleasantly surprised at the interest in Highland beef in their rural community. Their family has also taken to the show ring, entering their first 2 shows in 2022 with many more to come!
Katie has served on the NCHCA Board for the past 3 years. Her favorite part of this breed is not the animals, but the people and relationships built along the way. The Highland community is truly special, with people willing to share their time, knowledge, and talents to help one another.
Professionally, Katie has a background in Marketing, Hospitality, and is currently a Senior Manager of Customer Success Operations for Workiva, a software company. She also serves as the Vice President for the Worth County Fair Board.
directors (two open positions)
Michelle LeTourneau – Little House and Farm
Ten years ago if you had asked me or my husband if we would ever “be farmers” we would have laughed out loud. We have always had a high regard for farming, but where we live, we were surrounded by generational farms with hundreds if not thousands of acres, hundreds of head of cattle and infrastructure. My husband is an artist that works from home and I manage pricing and marketing for our local grocery store. By comparison, we knew nothing about farming and have a mere 40 acre homestead with 10 acres of grazeable land. We have never been afraid to follow our dreams, so becoming empty nesters a decade ago was just the opportunity we needed to try our hand at homesteading. We love learning how to grow, prepare and enjoy food with intense flavors, create beauty with our hands and work hard together towards a common goal.
After adding chicken and pigs to our garden party, we became increasingly interested in adding cattle to our Little House and Farm Homestead here in Hinckley, MN. We were invited to come and look at Highland cattle at our friends Ed and Diane Weber of Horseshoe Lake Farm in Wisconsin . Let’s just say, “you had me at hello”.
Standing out in their pasture, brushing and feeding treats to their impressive yet gentle herd was a surprisingly surreal moment! The Weber’s were gracious, acting as early mentors, leading us along this new adventure. We couldn’t have done it without them. We left there with 5 lbs of ground beef, an armful of old Bagpipe Magazines and two new cow/calf pairs. One was registered and one was not.
Over the next few months, our A.I. tech would ask us what our goals were and honestly we didn’t know what the real answer to that question was. When we started out, we would tell people that, “we were raising our Scottish Highlands because of their docile nature, ability to withstand harsh weather and high quality beef.”
We were trying to answer that deep, down why question, so we made the trip to the 2020 annual show in Austin, MN. That was a watershed moment for us. We could visualize the direction we wanted to go with our herd. We could see that the path forward was about more than raising beef. We wanted to learn as much as we could about genetics, breeding and nutrition.
We followed the advice of people we respected and sold our unregistered Highlands and decided to move forward with the best breeding stock we could afford. We are excited to be able to make better informed decisions as a result of connecting with AHCA and The North Central Highland Cattle Association. We love attending functions, shows and meetings and have enjoyed making many new friends.
Highland Cattle have certainly added variety and distinctiveness to our homestead and we are privileged to share this remarkable, beautiful breed with all the folks we meet.
Jessica Lipke - Northern Pines Farm
Jessica grew up in Ham Lake, Minnesota. She was involved in 4H, showing horses and continuing riding and showing horses until college, where she met her husband Steve. While dating, they would frequent the local farmers markets in Rochester, Minnesota and that's where their love for highland beef and the breed began. In 2021 they established Nordic Pines Farm in Solon Springs, Wisconsin- near Duluth, Minnesota and started their fold of highland cattle. Now
they're the farmers at the farmers market selling highland beef and educating customers about the beef and the breed.
Fall of 2022 Jessica and Steve opened up a farm to table market in their community, where they sell their highland beef and maple syrup, but also work with local farmers who use the market to sell pork, honey, lard products, and various bbq seasonings + sauces. It also is a coffee shop where locals can stop in to grab a latte and muffin on their way to work in the mornings. The neat thing about their shop is that all products sold in the shop are local farmers, but also
veteran and/or law enforcement owned businesses.
Currently, they primarily raise steers for beef, but have started to focus on diversifying and improving their genetics with goals to start showing cattle this year now that their kids are showing interest.
Ten years ago if you had asked me or my husband if we would ever “be farmers” we would have laughed out loud. We have always had a high regard for farming, but where we live, we were surrounded by generational farms with hundreds if not thousands of acres, hundreds of head of cattle and infrastructure. My husband is an artist that works from home and I manage pricing and marketing for our local grocery store. By comparison, we knew nothing about farming and have a mere 40 acre homestead with 10 acres of grazeable land. We have never been afraid to follow our dreams, so becoming empty nesters a decade ago was just the opportunity we needed to try our hand at homesteading. We love learning how to grow, prepare and enjoy food with intense flavors, create beauty with our hands and work hard together towards a common goal.
After adding chicken and pigs to our garden party, we became increasingly interested in adding cattle to our Little House and Farm Homestead here in Hinckley, MN. We were invited to come and look at Highland cattle at our friends Ed and Diane Weber of Horseshoe Lake Farm in Wisconsin . Let’s just say, “you had me at hello”.
Standing out in their pasture, brushing and feeding treats to their impressive yet gentle herd was a surprisingly surreal moment! The Weber’s were gracious, acting as early mentors, leading us along this new adventure. We couldn’t have done it without them. We left there with 5 lbs of ground beef, an armful of old Bagpipe Magazines and two new cow/calf pairs. One was registered and one was not.
Over the next few months, our A.I. tech would ask us what our goals were and honestly we didn’t know what the real answer to that question was. When we started out, we would tell people that, “we were raising our Scottish Highlands because of their docile nature, ability to withstand harsh weather and high quality beef.”
We were trying to answer that deep, down why question, so we made the trip to the 2020 annual show in Austin, MN. That was a watershed moment for us. We could visualize the direction we wanted to go with our herd. We could see that the path forward was about more than raising beef. We wanted to learn as much as we could about genetics, breeding and nutrition.
We followed the advice of people we respected and sold our unregistered Highlands and decided to move forward with the best breeding stock we could afford. We are excited to be able to make better informed decisions as a result of connecting with AHCA and The North Central Highland Cattle Association. We love attending functions, shows and meetings and have enjoyed making many new friends.
Highland Cattle have certainly added variety and distinctiveness to our homestead and we are privileged to share this remarkable, beautiful breed with all the folks we meet.
Jessica Lipke - Northern Pines Farm
Jessica grew up in Ham Lake, Minnesota. She was involved in 4H, showing horses and continuing riding and showing horses until college, where she met her husband Steve. While dating, they would frequent the local farmers markets in Rochester, Minnesota and that's where their love for highland beef and the breed began. In 2021 they established Nordic Pines Farm in Solon Springs, Wisconsin- near Duluth, Minnesota and started their fold of highland cattle. Now
they're the farmers at the farmers market selling highland beef and educating customers about the beef and the breed.
Fall of 2022 Jessica and Steve opened up a farm to table market in their community, where they sell their highland beef and maple syrup, but also work with local farmers who use the market to sell pork, honey, lard products, and various bbq seasonings + sauces. It also is a coffee shop where locals can stop in to grab a latte and muffin on their way to work in the mornings. The neat thing about their shop is that all products sold in the shop are local farmers, but also
veteran and/or law enforcement owned businesses.
Currently, they primarily raise steers for beef, but have started to focus on diversifying and improving their genetics with goals to start showing cattle this year now that their kids are showing interest.
ahca representative
Jan Larson - Larson's Headacrez
My name is Jan Larson, I am a proud mom of 3, a grandma of 2 beautiful girls, and a highland cattle owner for several years. My family have been members of NCHCA and AHCA for almost 20 years. Over the years I have worked hand in hand helping my husband on the farm, my children showing in 4H and Highland breed shows, served on multiple committees, as well as the NCHCA Board, currently getting ready to retire NCHCA President. We have made many friends throughout NCHCA and AHCA over the years, and have had many good times. I would like the chance to represent NCHCA on the national level. I believe North Central has great members, a strong foundation, and can bring a great deal of insight while working on the national board as well as with the other regional associations. Thank you for your consideration.
My name is Jan Larson, I am a proud mom of 3, a grandma of 2 beautiful girls, and a highland cattle owner for several years. My family have been members of NCHCA and AHCA for almost 20 years. Over the years I have worked hand in hand helping my husband on the farm, my children showing in 4H and Highland breed shows, served on multiple committees, as well as the NCHCA Board, currently getting ready to retire NCHCA President. We have made many friends throughout NCHCA and AHCA over the years, and have had many good times. I would like the chance to represent NCHCA on the national level. I believe North Central has great members, a strong foundation, and can bring a great deal of insight while working on the national board as well as with the other regional associations. Thank you for your consideration.
