Above the dale, we came across this herd of cows.
This is a primarily beef breed, called Belted Galloway. The breed originates in the Galloway region of southern Scotland and is quite hardy, surviving well on upland pastures or moorland. They are a relatively rare breed, which were included on the UK Rare Breed Survival Trust's watch list after the foot and mouth epidemic of 2001, and remained there up until 2007 when they were considered sufficiently recovered (having reached 1,500 registered breeding females). They continue to thrive with a total 1,000 new registrations of heifers last year.
They have their own society The Belted Galloway Cattle Society, which keeps records of cattle numbers and enables the registering of a cow as pedigree. The Society currently has over 500 members.
The Belted Galloway can be black, dun or red in colour, but all have the distinctive white band. Apparently, they are renowned for being friendly. We certainly found them so!
PS: A heifer is a young cow which has not yet calved.
I love them! So, do you have some of these? I love cows anyway...but the stripe I have never seen in Texas.
ReplyDeleteWhat extraordinary cattle, I have never seen them before. I winder whether their meat has bands of fat and lean beef. Yes, I know that's a daft question, just ignore me.
ReplyDeleteIf you hadn't actually shown me these I'd never have believed a striped cow!
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