Belted Galloway
Belted Galloway or Belties are a breed of cattle that arose from the crossing of Scottish Galloway cattle with a second breed of origin that cannot be determined with certainty. The cattle have the long coat of the Galloways with a striking white belt and no horns. Most of all, they are bred as a meat breed. In Great Britain, the comparatively rarely kept cattle breed is on the watch list of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust .
properties
Belted Galloway have long-haired fur, which consists of a thick undercoat and a long, wavy outer coat. In this way, you are able to stay outside all year round, even in unfavorable climates. Since they store their heat primarily through the two layers of fur and not through fat, they have comparatively lean meat. Bulls weigh around 800 kilograms with a height at the withers of 130 cm, cows have an average weight of 550 kilograms with a height at the withers of 120 cm. The cattle are characterized by the fact that they can also be kept on pastures that other breeds would reject, and that they still produce high-quality meat exclusively with grass, although tests have shown that they eat more different plant species than other cattle breeds. They live long compared to other cattle breeds and can live to be 17 to 20 years old. The small-framed, low-set animals are easy to calve.
history
Belted Galloways are documented for the first time in the 16th century in the Scottish province of Galloway , their exact original races cannot be clearly determined despite genetic tests. Together with the Galloways, many researchers speculate above all Dutch Lakenvelder cattle . What is certain, however, is that they are not descended from a cross with a dairy cattle breed and are now genetically more closely related to Aberdeen Angus and Murray Gray than to Galloway cattle.
After the Scottish Galloway Cattle Society refused to keep a herdbook for Belted Galloway, and breeders of regular Galloway of the Dun color variety had the same problem, they founded the Dun and Belted Galloway Breeder's Association in 1921. In the first herdbook from 1922 there were 200 Belties. After the Galloway Cattle Society recognized animals of the Dun color since 1951, their breeders left their old home and the Association for the Belties was renamed the "Belted Galloway Cattle Society". Of the so-called founding herds, Mochrum and Lullenden exist in Scotland today.
distribution
There are currently around 1500 belted cows (black, dun and red belted) in the main herd book. They are therefore listed as "under surveillance" by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy . Black Belties are by far the most common, but red (red) and dun (fawn, yellow-brown) also occur.
Belted Galloway are most numerous in the United States, where the animals were first introduced in 1939; in 2010 there were around 14,000 registered herdbook animals. In the US, farmers on the east coast in particular breed the breed with herds in New England, the Midwest, and the Southwest. In states like California, Oregon or Texas there are individual herds. In Australia, the breed is distributed all over the country and extends into the subtropical regions. They are also popular in other English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom and Ireland.
status
While Belted Galloways are internationally listed as a separate breed, the BDG (Federal Association of German Galloway Breeders eV) only recognizes “Galloway” as a breed name, maintains a common herdbook for both Galloways and allows “thoroughbred” crosses between Belties and Galloway. An exception in Germany is the FRZ (Verband Schleswig-Holsteiner Fleischrinderzüchter e.V.), which differentiates between Galloways, Belted Galloways and German Galloways (cross between Belted and Galloways).
literature
- David Stuart: An Illustrated History of Belted Cattle . Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh 1970, ISBN 0-7011-1676-5 .
- Friedrich Hardegg, Wolfgang Müller: Robust cattle. Highland Cattle and Galloway. Origin - keeping - breeding. avBook - Österreichischer Agrarverlag, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-7040-2275-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e beltie.de - Belted Galloway interest group
- ↑ a b U.S. Belted Galloway Society: History and Attributes of the Belted Galloway
- ^ Australian Belted Galloway Association
- ^ Association of Schleswig-Holstein beef cattle breeders
- ^ Foundation and History. US Belted Galloway Society, May 2, 2001, archived from the original on May 17, 2009 ; Retrieved August 25, 2013 .
- ↑ The Cattlesite