Galloways are a Scottish breed of Cattlenamed after the Galloway region of Scotland. They are said to be one of the longest-established breeds of Beef Cattle. We have the purely black Galloways which the original Galloway herdbook only registered Black Galloways.
There is also a recessive gene for red colour, known as 'dun' galloways. This makes sense of why we see a distinctive red tinge to our calves, this turns to black as they grow up though. We also see the odd patch of cream fur that appears on some of the cattle! A calf in 2023 was even born with a partially white leg!
These cattle are naturally hornless, however, just as with the occasional flashes of white we very very occasionally see one of the herd grow horns. Their heads are characterised by a bone knob at the top of their head instead of horns and they are partial to being rubbed in this spot and under their chin.
When Jeremy Leonard was looking at a way to farm the ''unfarmable' areas of Roundway Hill and enhance the countryside Jemma from Black Sheep suggested this hardy breed. The Galloway improves the natural herbage which is evident from the wide variety of flora and fauna now on the hill. It has been a joy to see how the once brown hill is now so much healthier
In terms of breeding, they are a maternal breed who are known for calving easily and having a good supply of milk for other calves. We do bring the cows in over winter even though they have been bred to winter outdoors. We find that it enables us to establish better cattle management, getting to know their personalities and also being able to quickly identify where a mother is not bonding and bottle feeding needs to take over.
Since taking over in 21 the new farm team have established a calving protocol where each calf and Mum is moved to the nursery as soon as possible after the calf is born so that we can monitor both Mum and baby closely. With the now unpredictable weather we have also seen calves succumbing to pneumonia more often and having them in the shed means we can identify and treat this extremely quickly.
We have had a number of Bulls on the farm and our new boy Revolution came to us at the beginning of 2023. Sadly our former bull Jack was diagnosed as being sub fertile after we had a very low birth rate in 2022. Revolution is a gorgeous, calm boy who seems to take his work very seriously, we are looking forward to seeing how he fared when we pregnancy test the cows in September.
As with any business we need to be able to make the farm financially viable and part of that is selling Galloway beef which we are proud to offer from our Click and Collect Room to provide a truly Farm to Fork experience. Their meat is exceptional and it has been fascinating seeing how our choices with regard to grass input and feeding methods have inputted on the meat.
Studies have shown that Galloway Beef is low in total fat and in saturated fat plus the beef is also said to be high in the beneficial Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.
