Minature Cattle in Covington

Richard Gradwohl and His Ranch for Vertically-Challenged Cattle
By DeAnn Rossetti


Richard Gladwohl, owner of Happy Mountain Miniature Cattle Farm in Covington, has created and trademarked over 18 kinds of miniature cattle during the last 37 years. He’s taken his mini cattle business from a small five thousand-dollar operation to a 3 million-dollar family-run success story.

A Seattle native, Gladwohl grew up in an entrepreneurial family. His father co-owned and operated Gradwohl and Pitcher Brothers House of Carpets in Ballard. Following his 12th birthday, his father decided it was time for Richard to start working in the store, which seemed like fun to him, because he was used to playing in his father’s work space. Gradwohls grandparents immigrated to America from Oslo, Norway, and Germany, instilling in their children and grandchildren a strong work ethic. Gradwohl’s grandfather’s signature can still be seen in many of the sidewalks he built in Walla-Walla Washington at the turn of the century.
After graduating from Roosevelt High School in Seattle, Gradwohl joined the Navy reserve to avoid the draft. “If you were a college student, you could also be a reservist in the military at that time,” he said. “That meant you didn’t have to go on active duty.” Gradwohl trained as a corpsman, essentially a male nurse, for several years, and was planning on studying medicine at Everett Community College until he was ordered to do a month of duty at the Bremerton Naval Hospital. “They landed me in the autopsy ward,” Gradwohl said. “That did me in; I decided that medicine wasn’t what I wanted to do. I changed my major to business the next day.”
After receiving his associate’s degree, Gradwohl went on to get his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Washington. During his last quarter at Everett Community College, he met Arlene, a fetching majorette for the college football team band. “I always wore a suit and tie (to school) because I was the student body president,” he said
“When I met her outside of the classroom, she thought I was a professor, and was taken aback that an older man would be interested in her. But I knew when I first saw her that she was the one for me.” The Gradwohls will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in March 2008. Gradwohl went back to work for his father in 1958, and after the birth of his twin children, Michael and Michelle in 1960, he decided to open his own carpet stores in Everett and Lynwood. Five years later, someone offered to buy his businesses, and Gradwohl felt ready to retire at age 28. “I was young!” he exclaimed, “I thought, why not cash in my chips and travel with my family?”
From 1966 to 1967, the Gradwohls drove their new station wagon across America five times, visiting every tourist site and landmark they’d ever heard about. Arlene Gradwohl, who had grown up on her grandparent’s farm in Snohomish, was especially keen to visit well-run farms, as she dreamed of raising her children on a farm one day.
After seeing all there was to see, the Gradwohls rented a home in Spokane, and Richard entered grad school at Eastern Washington University, where he earned a master of science degree and a master of business administration, or MBA. He heard that a college near Seattle, Highline Community College, was looking for an instructor to teach business classes, and Gradwohl figured it would be a nice stopgap position for a year or two. “My intention was to go back into business,” he said. “Thirty years later, I’d developed a full occupational business curriculum and become a fully tenured professor. They are still using the course outlines I wrote 25 years ago today (at Highline).” Gradwohl’s marketing, finance and business classes were always popular with students because he’d purchased a strip mall in Kent during the 1970s and ran two businesses, MGs Ice Cream and Fun Time Pizza, so he had real world experience to pass on to his students.
Gradwohl retired and was awarded professor emeritus status in 1994.
The Gladwohl family bought a 40-acre farm on 164th in what was then unincorporated King County, and soon discovered that taxes for a burgeoning area in South King County would be their undoing. “We were in the path of growth with people moving out of Seattle,” he said. “They tax property for the highest and best use of the land, which in (King County’s) opinion was for houses, not farms. So when the property tax became too high, we had to sell off pieces of our land to survive.” Their standard sized cows didn’t fit on the remaining 5 acres, so Gradwohl looked into purchasing and breeding miniature cows. “The thought occurred to me that it would be easier to keep smaller animals, like the cattle developed in England, than to raise standard cows,” Gladwohl said. “They could do well on less land, they were feed efficient, docile and less prone to disease.” Gladwohl did some research and discovered that Herefords, Jerseys and Angus cows were originally smaller animals that had been imported to the United States from England in the 1800s. Following WWII, a hungry America called for farmers to breed larger cows for more beef per animal. “In the process, we lost the tenderness and flavor of the meat, because the cattle were fed grain and their muscle (meat) became marbled with fat, which Americans developed a taste for,” he said. “They also lost a lot of docility as they became larger.” Miniature cattle beef has 75 percent less fat than regular beef, and is hormone and antibiotic-free. Miniature cows also produce less methane, which is better for the ozone layer, and make ‘cow cookies” instead of cow pies.
Gladwohl discovered some closed herds that hadn’t been bred larger in Georgia and Louisiana, and after obtaining a small herd of 6 cattle and some bull semen, Gladwohl began breeding the cows “down” to make them smaller and to generate new breeds of mini cows that would appeal to the pet market. He founded the International Miniature Cattle Breeders Society and Registry to allow the Gladwohls to keep track of the various cattle being bred and to allow them to ship semen, embryos and animals all over the world.
According to Gladwohl, there are 6 niche markets for miniature cows that provide mini cow breeders and owners with a way to make approximately $40-50k per farm.
“There’s the pet market, the breeder market, the mini-milker market, the show market, the organic beef market and the grass-fed, all-natural beef market,” he said. “Each breed we have developed is specific to one or more of those markets.”
One of the truisms of the business world, notes Gradwohl, is that selection drives demand, and if you have increased selection, from 2 to 18 breeds that are all created to apply to at least two niche markets, you have the opportunity for a burgeoning business.
“Our business has been growing 20-25 percent every year for the last 10 years,” Gradwohl said. “The biggest niche is the pet market, so we’ve developed the Panda and Belties mainly for that market.”
Though Gradwohl’s “mid-size” Jersey cows (42 to 48 inches tall at the hip) are easiest to milk, because you can get under them, he says that it is possible to milk the mini cows. “You just have to get down on your knees to reach under and milk them, or you use an automatic milking machine,” he said. “It takes a bit of time and patience.”
During their childhood on Happy Mountain Farm, Michael and Michelle Gradwohl developed a love of mini cattle, and currently commute from Maple Valley and Bonny Lake to care for them, while Arlene Gradwohl drives all over the U.S. several times a year with Michael to deliver miniature cattle to their new owners.
Miniature cattle live for 15 to 18 years, and cost anywhere from $1,500 to $30,000 each, with the average mini Covingtonshire or Kentshire heifer costing about $4,500-$5,500. The Covingtonshire cow was named the official cow of the City of Covington on July 11, 2000. The mini cattle feed on small amounts of grass and alfalfa, (1/3 of what regular cattle eat) and yet can grow to be as wide as they are tall. “I have a (miniature) Angus bull who is 40 inches tall and 40 inches wide who is used for breeding,” said Gradwohl. “The bulls we can’t use for breeding we make into steers and sell for pets, or put them in a pen and have them slaughtered here for meat.” Gradwohl has a contract breeding program wherein he sells miniature cattle to a breeder at a discount, then they raise the cattle and when the calves are old enough to sell, Gradwohl takes care of all the marketing, registration and delivery of the animals. Both Gradwohl and the breeder get a percentage of income from the sale of the calves. There are 120 contract breeders connected to Happy Mountain Farm, which got its name from its stunning view of Mt Rainier.
Gradwohl is not only busy with the business of his farm and maintaining the registry organization, he has just written a book “The Beginners Guide to Starting Your Own Miniature Cattle Business” and is developing three new breeds of miniature cattle to promote and maintain interest in miniature cattle farming. They are the White Jersey, the Red Panda and the Barbee, which is a micro-miniature cow that only grows to be 32 inches tall.
“I’m 71, and I figure I’ll live to be 105, so I’ll see this business grow and grow,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, but if you have kids, they can do a lot of the work, which makes it a good family business. It’s also been a good retirement business; it has provided a creative adventure for me.”

Happy Mountain Miniature Cattle Farm, 25204 156th Ave S.E., Covington, Wash. 253-631-1911. Copies of “The Beginner’s Guide to Starting Your Own Miniature Cattle Business” can be found on Gradwohl’s Web site www.minicattle.com.