Belted Galloway beef is exceptionally tender, full of flavour and juicy and were the winners of the 2003 Sydney Royal Show “Beef Taste Test”. Data collected in the U.S. has shown that the beef dresses out at 60 – 62% of live weight making it a very profitable breed.

They are a wonderfully docile breed, with a friendly nature and are renowned for their mothering skills. As I mentioned before, you don’t often see a herd of Belted Galloway cattle grazing our fields, they were once even considered to be a ‘rare’ breed but luckily their numbers have risen enough to drop this title.

Galloways are all hornless or polled although some writers say that formerly they were mixed, some being horned and others polled. The breed is very docile and couragous, it has been said that they will team up and attack predators to prevent attacks on their calves.

17-20 years
The cows are long living (17-20 years), regular breeders noted for the amount of rich milk they produce, therefore rearing a good calf.

Belted Galloways are primarily a pastured beef breed. They are evolved to digest grass and hay, and although they will grow on corn or grains, there is no need to feed it. As a farmer, baling or even buying organic or non-sprayed hay is easier than trying to find and pay for organic grain.

The most visible characteristics of the Belted Galloway are its long hair coat and the broad white belt that completely encircles the body. Its coarse outer coat helps shed the rain, and its soft undercoat provides insulation and waterproofing, enabling the breed to happily overwinter outside.

A mature Belted Galloway Bull can weigh between 815 and 955 kilograms although some are smaller and others larger. A cow ranges from 400 to 600 kilograms, new born heifers weigh, on average around 30 kilograms and a bull calf can be 35 kilograms and sometimes more.

The hair of the Galloway is long, waved, and shaggy and the ears have, characteristic for the breed, long hair growing inside. Galoway cows have an average height of 120 cm and weigh 450-590 kg; bulls average 135 cm and weigh 600-900 kg. The animals are thrifty and fertile.

Cows are milky, maternal and long-lived, with a well-deserved reputation for getting in calf every year. And, though Galloways are a quintessential hardy Northern breed, they adapt well to Southern climates, too.

Most Cattle produce milk but not all of them are used in the dairy Cattle capacity for their milk. Cows only calve once a year and should have 12 to 14-month inter-calving cycle. The Belted Galloway cows are fertile, good maternal instincts and have easy calving.

Belted Galloway Cattle Breed Information. The breed is named so mainly because of the belt. An association for the breed named the Belted Galloway Association was formed in 1921 in Scotland. And the name of the association was changed to the Belted Galloway Society in 1951.

The most marketable of all the Belted Galloway cattle breeds are the ones that are top coat is completely black and only their bellies are white with no other white marking anywhere not even on their legs, feet, head or tail. The Belted Galloway cattle breed are a smaller strain of the Galloway cattle breed that is a much larger breed.