Naming cattle... live and learn

We bought our first Highlands back in 2010, two cow-calf pairs, and we had them rebred before bringing them home.  We were pretty new to owning cattle having, only had one other Longhorn cow-calf pair before getting our Highlands, so it's been a learning journey to say the least (and still is).

When we first started out we named our calves starting with the same letters for each year, but there was no rhyme or reason as to what letter we would use.  It soon became obvious why the naming convention followed by the American Highland Cattle Association  was a very good idea.  It makes it so much easier to keep track of how old everyone is, especially now as cattle have come and gone from our farm.  We were fortunate that the farm we acquired our first cows from started our membership to AHCA.  It's a good place to start when looking for reliable information.

This will be our 5th year of using the AHCA naming system.  This year's letter code is 'E' and we are starting to think of names for the new calves, soon to arrive.  Trying to avoid naming them after friends or family, especially if they are bound for beef... that would make for a very awkward conversation!  How about you?  How do you name your fold?  Do you name those destined for the dinner table?  Shhh, we do, but don't tell some of those eating those delicious burgers and steak.