CHAMPION, Ohio – Highland Acres isn’t your average farm. There are no crops or tractors, and the animals aren’t used for food.
Instead, it offers visitors comfort and stress relief through cuddling. Cow – and donkey – cuddling, to be specific.
Highland Acres Farm, tucked along North Park Avenue, offers packages where you can cuddle with a miniature, a micromini, mid- or full-size cow or a miniature donkey.
Ed Stanton, Highland Acres’ owner, used to own trucking and plasma sign companies but closed both after the pandemic. He works a side business but planned to spend the bulk of his time building hot rods. That changed one day while scrolling online.
“I saw a reel for cow cuddling,” he said. “I thought it was the dumbest thing ever, because I grew up in Mantua and, at that time, it was all dairy farms. I started working at a dairy farm across the street when I was 9 years old. So when I saw a reel for cow cuddling, I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. Who would ever pay for it? And then I look into it, and I’m like, people pay for it.”
He bought his first cow in December 2024 and opened the farm the following spring.
Prices vary depending on the length of the cuddle session and the number of people in a party. A 30-minute cuddle session with one cow of your choice runs $25 and includes petting, cuddling, brushing and feeding treats to the fuzzy moo.
The Highland Experience Package runs for 60 minutes and costs $125 for up to four people. It includes cuddle time with the mini cows and feeding them treats, petting and brushing them, petting and feeding treats to the yearlings and time to pet and feed the full-size cows.
People book sessions for adult’s and children’s birthday parties, date nights, weddings, engagement parties, baby and wedding showers and sip and paints. While summer proves the most popular season, heated cuddle rooms make it a winter attraction too. Photo packages also are available.
And visitors come from all over.
“It seems like we’ve had more people come from two or three hours away than we have local,” Stanton said. “The last two weekends, everybody that came has been from three to four hours away.”
That’s without advertising.
“I’ve kept my mouth shut about this whole thing,” the owner said. “We have a Facebook and a Google page – that’s it. So they Google cow cuddling near me, and we come up.”
Highland Acres is home to 17 cows – Scottish Highlands, HighParks, a cross between Scottish Highland and White Park and Texas Longhorns – and three mini donkeys. There’s not much interaction between the two species. Some of the cows try to befriend and play with the donkeys – Daisy and Norman, especially – but donkeys Clarke, Divinci and Shadow thwart their efforts.
Sturdy, small-framed Highland cows sport long, shaggy double coats with colors ranging from red/brown to brindle, black, yellow or silver. Swoops of longer hair protect their eyes, lending a supermodel cow look. Fluffy white coats with black markings on their ears, nose, hooves and around their eyes distinguish HighParks.
Stanton buys the cows from farms in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and Illinois. The donkeys came from South Carolina.
Kevin, a soft, dark brown young micromini cow, and Gunner, a plush reddish brown mini with a fringe of long bangs, are the most requested cuddlers.
“Kevin because of his size, and then Gunner because of how fluffy he is and because of all of the colors” in his coat, Stanton said.
Highland cows are docile by nature, but Stanton spends every day with them, acclimating them to people. The cows enjoy being brushed and pet and soaking up human attention.
“They love it,” Stanton said.
If you stayed up past your bedtime the night before your visit, many Highland Acres cows will snooze with you.
“Kevin’s a good pillow for naps,” Stanton said. “Actually, all of them are really good pillows, like him right there. When they’re laying down, you can literally walk right in there, sit down, lay right up against him. He won’t move – any of them.”
Adult cows at Highland Acres are the same way.
“My full-size bull, you can walk right up and just lay on his back and reach up and scratch his ears,” Stanton said. “He just doesn’t care. He loves it.”
On a recent morning, the cows greeted visitors, competing for attention and using a camera tripod as a scratching post. When one, Daisy, a White Park cow with black accents, saw Gunner and Kevin getting attention, she mooed her displeasure and nudged her way in. Once attention focused on her, Daisy milked it, nuzzling in for pets and head scratches.
They also like to play. They buck, tossing inflatable toys around the fenced-in field and chasing after them.
Stanton said people glean comfort in communing with cows. That’s the attraction. Plus, they’re cute.
They’re voracious eaters. Grain and hay comprise the bulk of their diet, with miniatures eating 1 to 2 pounds of grain daily, while adults’ daily feed totals about 3 pounds. They all eat hay, as well, and are big fans of treats, which are feed compressed into pellets. They love graham crackers. Some enjoy potato chips and various fruits and vegetables.
“The full-size female that we have, she absolutely loves oranges,” Stanton added.
While the cows get along, there is a hierarchy, Stanton said. Anna Belle, one of the yearlings, is top cow. If Daisy or one of the others tries to snack on hay on Annabelle’s side of the barn, Anna Belle makes it clear that’s unacceptable.
Stanton recites the animals’ names like they’re his family. The cows know their names, but whether they come when called isn’t guaranteed.
“They will turn and look right at me and acknowledge me when I call them,” he said. “But then usually they just stand there unless I have treats.”
Pictured at top: From left are Ed Stanton; Gunner; Denise Dick, a Business Journal reporter; and Daisy.