About Us.
Raymond grew up in a small town located in Alberta, Canada where his family owned and operated a small beef cattle feedlot. Raymond grew up exhibiting cattle throughout Canada but later moved to the United States to pursue a career in the livestock industry. Today, in addition to Highland Connection, Raymond operates Competitive Edge Genetics (CEG) out of Lawrence, KS where he focuses on selling show cattle and semen on high-quality bulls to customers across the country. Raymond sells an average of 100 show calves every fall which has allowed him to build many relationships with people throughout the industry. After the fall sale season, Raymond continues servicing those animals throughout the year at shows across the country like the National Western Stock Show, the North American International Livestock Exposition, the American Royal, and many more. Apart from the show cattle, CEG offers semen on an extensive variety of high-quality AI sires. Raymond spends the spring making farm visits across the country meeting with breeders to help make breeding decisions to better their programs. Over the course of the last twelve years of living in the United States, he has been fortunate to raise and sell numerous state fair and national champions. His expertise in the field of marketing and show and sale cattle preparation has helped solidify him as an industry leader and mentor across numerous breeds.
Sterling grew up on a farm in Bath, Michigan. Despite her father growing up exhibiting horses, Sterling's parents decided they wanted to fill the pastures with cattle. In 2002, they purchased their very first cow at the National Western Stock Show, and it just so happened to be a Highland! Sterling's family had Highland Cattle for several years but soon sold out, trading in the Highlands for production Angus cattle. In 2007 Sterling began her junior show career and soon following began showing Angus and Shorthorn cattle across the country. From a young age, Sterling knew that she wanted to remain involved in the livestock industry once her junior show career was complete. Today, in addition to breeding and selling Highlands, Angus and Shorthorn cattle, Sterling owns two livestock marketing companies; Sterling Photography and Empire Imagery. With these companies, Sterling works to help livestock producers and show committees from coast to coast promote their events and market their livestock through photography, videography, web design, and social media management.
The Vision.
To obtain top-notch genetics from established breeders throughout the country that exemplify what we want our program to embody and use those as building blocks all while creating meaningful connections with breeders from coast to coast.
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Our Genetics.
We are carefully curating an arsenal of genetics from prominent breeders across the country that we are proud to stand behind. When choosing females and sires to use in our program, we place extreme emphasis on phenotype. While genetics are indeed extremely important to us, we aren't going to pick a female or sire to use in our program strictly off of paper. Traits like foot quality, udder quality, structural integrity, and eye appeal are the main focus of our selection criteria.