Galloway cattle in Ireland?

Eoghan Barra

Based on the excellent advice I got in a previous thread on the subject, I'm very seriously considering getting a few Galloway heifers.

I'm more interested in the plain variety (black, red, dun), rather than belted.

Does anyone know of anyone who has Galloway cattle in Ireland, or how I might find them?

If it's names and contact details of individuals, PMs might be better.

Thanks in advance.

jack77

Think i saw a few for sale on donedeal not so long ago, even if their sold the sellor maybe be able to steer you in the right direction or
http://belted-galloways.com/contacts.html

blue5000

Did you try donedeal?

http://www.donedeal.ie/find/all/for-sale/Ireland/galloway%20cattle

I reckon the shorthorn cross galloway would be the way to go, hybrid vigour and all that.

Beat me to it jack.

Eoghan Barra

jack77 wrote: »

Think i saw a few for sale on donedeal not so long ago, even if their sold the sellor maybe be able to steer you in the right direction or
http://belted-galloways.com/contacts.html

Thanks for that, will keep an eye on donedeal.

If anyone knows of anyone with Galloways that I could contact directly, that would be great.

Horace

Are you looking pedigree or commercial cattle ? stores or breeding stock?

Eoghan Barra

Horace wrote: »

Are you looking pedigree or commercial cattle ? stores or breeding stock?

Hello Horace,

Firstly, thanks very much for your posts in the last thread, they were very useful to me. I should say that this is all new to me, as I'm only getting into a bit of farming for the first time.

You might correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that pedigree (i.e. not belted) Galloways would suit me better as the 'highland' characteristics I'm interested in seem to be more concentrated in them, probably because the belted variety are likely a cross with the Dutch Lakenvelder breed.

I must admit I don't know what 'stores' means in this context, but I'd be looking to breed them for beef. I'm not sure yet whether that means Galloway cows with a Galloway bull, or Galloway cows with a bull of another breed.

A lot of my land is still leased out to neighbours until next year, so I'm thinking I'll maybe start off with a few Galloway heifers for now and take it from there when the rest of the land comes back to me and I'm a bit more clued in.

Any more advice or suggestions would be welcome.

Horace

If you are just going to rear galloway cattle to slaughter for beef then don't worry too much about what colour they are as all the galloways type animals are equally hardy easy kept cattle. You may find it easier and cheaper to pick up a few belted galloway cattle as their markings has to be correct to register them as pedigree ie if the white band is not a complete circle or if there is white marking on their feet they are classed as commercial cattle. Stores is a term used for buying young cattle male or female around a year a old and rearing them on either for slaughter or you could breed the heifers. THE easiest way to gain experience would be to start off with a mix bunch of one year old stores a few bullocks and heifers let them graze away and next year you could bull the best of the heifers and get some cash back by selling the bullocks for slaughter. have you got a herd number ?

Eoghan Barra

Horace wrote: »

If you are just going to rear galloway cattle to slaughter for beef then don't worry too much about what colour they are as all the galloways type animals are equally hardy easy kept cattle. You may find it easier and cheaper to pick up a few belted galloway cattle as their markings has to be correct to register them as pedigree ie if the white band is not a complete circle or if there is white marking on their feet they are classed as commercial cattle. Stores is a term used for buying young cattle male or female around a year a old and rearing them on either for slaughter or you could breed the heifers. THE easiest way to gain experience would be to start off with a mix bunch of one year old stores a few bullocks and heifers let them graze away and next year you could bull the best of the heifers and get some cash back by selling the bullocks for slaughter. have you got a herd number ?

All good advice again.

I must admit I also prefer the look of the non belted Galloways (a good give-away of my rookie status), and I'll try to source them first, but if I have to go with (commercial) belted there'll be no harm in that.

Any suggestions as to how many stores I should put in per acre of very rough ground? I have about 25 acres I can use at the moment, which will increase up to a total of about 72 once the leases run out.

I know that prices go up and down etc., but roughly how much would you say stores of the two types (commercial belted or non-belted) might go for?

I don't have a herd number yet, as I wasn't even sure would I be getting sheep or what. I'll be sorting that pretty soon.

lakill Farm

I know the chairman is on Twitter of the galloway club. He has the black belted type but he hows all the breeds in ireland, the north,m scotland and UK.

oldsmokey

Would not a few AA or Hereford be easier to source, as easy to keep, thrive as well, and possibly qualify for slaughter premium on top?...just a thought...Eoghan, it would be well worth -while spending the few quid on your local Teagasc guy for 12 months til you 'find your feet'...ther'll be a million questions to answer, and its worth a bit to have someone impartial on your side..not to mention the bloody paperwork..some are better than others, but even the worst will be a great help to a novice..good luck..

Bodacious

connemara national park have a small herd of pure bred black galloway cattle, free admission if you wanted to see them in flesh

bbam

oldsmokey wrote: »

Would not a few AA or Hereford be easier to source, as easy to keep, thrive as well, and possibly qualify for slaughter premium on top?...just a thought...Eoghan, it would be well worth -while spending the few quid on your local Teagasc guy for 12 months til you 'find your feet'...ther'll be a million questions to answer, and its worth a bit to have someone impartial on your side..not to mention the bloody paperwork..some are better than others, but even the worst will be a great help to a novice..good luck..

I agree.
Stick with something mainstream. They are easy got and easy sold.
IMHO you may as well have Alpaca than Galloway as you could invest money, rear them and then no market for them other than as a hobby.

Horace

AA and Hereford make good cattle but are no way close to being as hardy as Galloways or as easily finished. Galloways are treated the same as any other breed by the meat factories as they will grade O+ to R+ i even have sold U's. I been breeding them for 7 years and never had a problem selling them to a factory for slaughter .They are finished at 18 to 23 months.

Eoghan Barra

Horace wrote: »

AA and Hereford make good cattle but are no way close to being as hardy as Galloways or as easily finished. Galloways are treated the same as any other breed by the meat factories as they will grade O+ to R+ i even have sold a U's. I been breeding them for 7 years and never had a problem selling them to a factory for slaughter .They are finished at 18 to 23 months.

The main issue for me is that the land is so rough, i.e. very rocky mountain with 'cliffs' (escarpments), near the sea so very exposed, etc., that anything other than sheep would have to be pretty tough: Galloways seem to fit the bill.

Horace, how many stores would you recommend for about 25 acres of very rough ground?

Horace

ON marginal ground its better to be understocked than overstocked so , will you be relying on the hill for total feed or can you cut hay or silage on some of the land. will they be allowed to roam all over the land or is it fenced into a few lots ?I susject you start off with 5 or 6 if they will be allowed roam all over the 25 acres . is the land similar to the land where the Galloway graze on this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUoj4Tq3f24

Eoghan Barra

Horace wrote: »

ON marginal ground its better to be understocked than overstocked so , will you be relying on the hill for total feed or can you cut hay or silage on some of the land. will they be allowed to roam all over the land or is it fenced into a few lots ?I susject you start off with 5 or 6 if they will be allowed roam all over the 25 acres . is the land similar to the land where the Galloway graze on this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUoj4Tq3f24

The land is all a lot rougher than in the video: it's very rocky, with plenty of sheer rock faces and yes, I will be relying on the hill for total feed. The land is fenced into two adjoining areas, but they will be able to roam over the full 25 acres if I open the fence.

Do you think 5 or 6 would suit that area?

Horace

without seeing your land its difficult to advise but i guess that 5 acres should be able to support one beast that why i said 5 or 6, It would be better to keep the two divisions as while one area is being grazed the other could be rested to allow the grass to grow.is your land as rough as this http://www.flickr.com/photos/35525738@N02/6589948261/in/photolist-b3kd2B-aoCy8r-93heca-9fenmE-bV8Xr8-dH8eYR-dsFc4b-c6izbE-c6iytm-88u3XF-8xc can you post a few pics?

Eoghan Barra

Horace wrote: »

without seeing your land its difficult to advise but i guess that 5 acres should be able to support one beast that why i said 5 or 6, It would be better to keep the two divisions as while one area is being grazed the other could be rested to allow the grass to grow.is your land as rough as this http://www.flickr.com/photos/35525738@N02/6589948261/in/photolist-b3kd2B-aoCy8r-93heca-9fenmE-bV8Xr8-dH8eYR-dsFc4b-c6izbE-c6iytm-88u3XF-8xc can you post a few pics?

Yes, that's closer to what we're talking about, though still not as rough!

Basically the division is between our land (lower down) and commonage (higher up), in which we have a share of about 12 acres.

jimini0

well eoghan have you got the cattle yet?
i love the galloway cattle i have attemped several times over the last few years to get a couple of them but just never happened for various reasons.
i think this autumn im goin to seriously take the plunge. let us know how you are getting on anyways

mikeoh

10 different lots of Galloways on done deal in the last week or so......all ye need is euros!!!!

Eoghan Barra

jimini0 wrote: »

well eoghan have you got the cattle yet?
i love the galloway cattle i have attemped several times over the last few years to get a couple of them but just never happened for various reasons.
i think this autumn im goin to seriously take the plunge. let us know how you are getting on anyways

No, haven't got any yet, have to wait til neighbour's lease is up on land.

Eoghan Barra

mikeoh wrote: »

10 different lots of Galloways on done deal in the last week or so......all ye need is euros!!!!

Almost all the ads I saw were for belties, I'll be looking for the plain black ones.

Eoghan Barra

jimini0 wrote: »

i think this autumn im goin to seriously take the plunge. let us know how you are getting on anyways

Sorry about the short replies last night, was under pressure.

Will certainly let you know how things go. What kind of ground will you be putting them on, jimini0?

jimini0

Eoghan Barra wrote: »

Sorry about the short replies last night, was under pressure.

Will certainly let you know how things go. What kind of ground will you be putting them on, jimini0?

oh its rough. its flat and wet with a million rushes on it. im hoping to get it drained this week. drains have not been done in 20 years. hopefully that will do the trick.
im thinking of getting pedigree non registered belties. i like the look of them and they apparently like my land conditions. hopefully then next year ill branch out to the plain black or red galloways.
money is a stumbling block for me as only starting to get back into farming. ill build up the cash reserves and get on with it.

HillFarmer

Horace wrote: »

AA and Hereford make good cattle but are no way close to being as hardy as Galloways or as easily finished. Galloways are treated the same as any other breed by the meat factories as they will grade O+ to R+ i even have sold U's. I been breeding them for 7 years and never had a problem selling them to a factory for slaughter .They are finished at 18 to 23 months.

BUMP

Hi Horace,

I'm looking at Galloways at the minute. The one thing putting me off is a market for them as weanlings, so I reckon the only thing is to finish them.

I see you have sent a few to the factory, what weight were they liveweight? Did they dress out well?

lanod2407

Collected my first 2 beltie heifers (10 months) last weekend - technically they're now called "the girls" at home - and well pleased with my purchase.
Been looking for a while, and decided to take the plunge. Plan is to breed and grow the herd over the next few years.

manta240

hi Eoghan
In the similar situation myself did u get some cattle or what did u do?
Have u any sources for getting some galloways?
Micheal

manta240

lanod2407 wrote: »

Collected my first 2 beltie heifers (10 months) last weekend - technically they're now called "the girls" at home - and well pleased with my purchase.
Been looking for a while, and decided to take the plunge. Plan is to breed and grow the herd over the next few years.

How are you finding them. Are they worth the investment or would u have choosen a different breed

lanod2407

manta240 wrote: »

How are you finding them. Are they worth the investment or would u have choosen a different breed

Great cattle for me. Very easy to look after and ideal to out winter. Only getting 2 was tricky when I was trying to spot them bulling to get them into calf - should have had more, or at least a few bullocks running with them.