[Castlehill Farm]

We have black and white Pedigree Belted Galloway Cattle and would like to know if you own any?

We have 7 cows, 4 breeding age heifers, 3 heifers born Nov 2012 and 1 heifer born last month with 5 stoats which are 1 - 2 year old, 1 - 1/2 year old, 2 - 5 month old and 1 - 1 month old and which all of these Belties are black and white but we have now got an unrelated 2 year old red and white bull which will now be the father to all our future stock.
I have attached a photo of Rusty our bull.

[kja]

we have a beltie x dexter growing on for 2014 beef. very sweet natured chunky beast he is, he looks more beltie than dexter with almost a full belt.

[Rosemary]

Stunning cattle 

[domsmith]

i have a beltie cross dexter cow she is great! tough looking hard as nails cow. sometimes the calves are full belt sometimes just a white fleck.

nice looking cows you have there!

dominic

[Simon O]

2 black and white Beltie heifers which will be for breeding and a steer of about a year who will be for eating.  THey  are friendly and like being brushed. Not yet sure  if we will go to a show with them but this might be fun.  Jennifer   who we got them from goes to shows and so has kept them tame

[Susannah]

I have a Beltie Vaynol cross. She is a three year old heifer who has failed to get in calf having been with an Aberdeen Angus bull for over three months who had a 100% success rate! So time will tell if we keep her as a companion as and when needed, or pop her in the freezer.

[humphreymctush]

I have 2 Belted Galloway cows. They will be having Highland X calves this summer

[Shropshirelass]

I wish & their stunning cattle - lovely bull by the way. But are galloways really as nasty as everyone says they are? As a farmer by us had welsh blacks & now these & they say both breeds are very wild x

[Castlehill Farm]

Hello  humphreymctush,

Our herd eat carrots from my 3 year old son and 6 year old daughter's hand over the fence.

They also eat soaked barley or sugabeet from a bucket and are always looking over the fence of their fields looking to see what is going on or if we are coming over to give them some natural feed.

We have good friends who live up by Tomintoul have had a belted galloway herd for many years running their hill farms and which like ours are no more dangerous than any other cattle herd!
When my partner and I visited their hill farms we found all the animals were calm and she said if you remain calm around your animals your animals will remain calm!
Even when tagging our calves in front of their mums they let us know they are unhappy but never dangerous.

Our new bull Rusty ( who has been haltered ) when is drinking even moves out the way for the cows when they come over for a drink and does the same when feeding hay.

Cattle are big animals and can be dangerous just like any other big animal so care should be taken at all times when handling cattle.

We say if you spend quality time with your animals there will be benefits for both parties.

Cheers,

Ian.

[humphreymctush]

Hello Ian
I have attached a photo
 

[Castlehill Farm]

Here is some pictures of my cattle!

[Simon O]

Hi Ian,
Was looking at old posts about Belties just one of those things you do. I see you have a red bull for your herd of black and whites - they look really good. I have been looking at the genetics of these things as I am looking to get semen for my 2 heifers, and was thinking about getting some red into the herd. As far as I understand it the red is recessive ie the only chance you have of getting any red calves from your black and whites is if your black and white heifer carries the red gene, and then there is a 50:50 chance of getting a red calf. If your heifers are double black genes (as is likely unless there is any red is their forebears) then all the offspring will be black but will be red carriers. I asked the person I got mine from and she says there is no red in their family tree. This would mean that I would need to get red semen for the heifers, then get unrelated red semen to inseminate any female offspring, then I'd stand a 50:50 chance of getting a red calf in the second generation - ie longterm planning, and possibly needing more land than I've got without getting rid of my first generation stock (which I don't really want to do)! Not sure if I have really got my head round it all correctly -what are your thoughts about this - I assume you are aiming to get some red calves??
Simon

[Castlehill Farm]

Hello Simon,

Sorry for the delay.

Have a look at this article it is of good reading!

http://www.beltie.org/beltiemag/2005/color05.html

Best regards,
Ian.

[Simon O]

Thanks Ian