A view at the farm

Omni Farm is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwest corner of North Carolina. We join the Blue Ridge Parkway, milepost 265 to 264 at Calloway Gap. Our main business is the growing of quality Christmas Trees, and when you visit the farm you will see plenty of them. We are a family farm - father and son working farmers. Wife, Martha is an accomplished artist and painted the artwork at the top of the page. Sister-in-law, Patty is our business manager and probably the person who you will talk to on the telephone.

We purchased the farm in 1972. Dairy goats and then sheep were our first experience with live stock. In 1986, my father had a friend who owned Thomas Jefferson's father's original plantation outside of Charlottesville, Virginia, known as Pantops. We had a herd of Highland cattle under the Pantops name. Mr. Worrell, a very successful newspaper owner and businessman, was getting up in years with no one in his family having an interest in cows. I had seen the cows the year before on a visit to Pantops, and was intrigued with them. Mr. Worrell offered us the hers at the going rate of slaugher cows at that time. So two weeks later, for 69 cents per pound, we had a beautiful herd of 21 Highland cows and a handsome bull Alasdair Finghin of Dirtane. Most of the cows were middle-aged or older. One was 19 and had a nice calf that year. In 1991, I was looking for a new bull. Art Robbins, owner of the Flaming Eagle Land and Cattle Co. had donated Robb Mac Duff 86 (Mac) who was grand champion bull of Pen Show at the 1991 ASHBA National show, to be raffled with the proceeds going to the National. 80 tickets were sold at $100.00 each. We bought six and were the winners. We feel, at the farm, that we really didn't decide to raise Highland cattle, but that they decided it would be a good place to live and picked us!

At the present, we are running approximately 25 brood cows. They are a combination of the old Pantops bloodlines with a heavy dose of Mac. Plus some very nice cows we purchased a few years ago from Ridgetop in New York. Mac was put down last year at the age of 18 but was still breeding at 17. You can see our newest herd sires on the Herd Sires page. We love our cows and are very proud of our fold. Visitors are welcome.