News
Winter 2010
The halter training went very well with the calves and they had their first outing to Oxford A & P over Easter weekend. They behaved very well if a little noisy at times bellowing for Mum who was probably bellowing just as loud back home.
We came home with a haul of ribbons and did very well for their first time out. Since then they have been weaned and are now running with the mob of yearlings and two year olds. Work will begin again in September with a refresher on leading for Ellesmere A & P in October.
In April I attended the Galloway Society AGM weekend where we started in Wellington, moved on to Palmerston North and back to Wellington. Along the way we visited some breeders and looked at cattle. The organizers had a virtual show (animals judged on photographs) after the annual dinner and from my entries I came home with 1st in the heifer calf class, 1st in the bull calf class both Black Galloways, 1st in the senior cow class with a Beltie, Champion calf with the Galloway heifer and Supreme Female with the Beltie cow. A great way to appeal to a wider membership around a social gathering and prize-giving. I hope it becomes an annual event.
At the end of May I had a Black Galloway heifer calf and two Beltie heifer calves hit the ground. They have come through the wet miserable weather very well.
The 3rd of June saw the arrival of my first Southfield Double-O-Seven calf and it is a heifer. She is a very lively calf and spends a lot of time charging around kicking her heels in the air and keeping mum on her toes. At the same time she is friendly and will come across the paddock to you for a scratch. Dare I think halter training will be easy.
The dairy farmers who bought all the Beltie bulls last year have come back for more this year. This was their first time using Beltie bulls over the dairy heifers and there was some doubt the right decision had been made. Now the calves are on the ground they are rapped with the calves and the bulls.
“We are very pleased with the calves as they are easily distinguished from the AB calves. We are finding the bulls very easy to have around. They have over wintered with the heifers & don't have any of the usual bull management issues. We had the lowest empty rate in the 2yr olds we have ever had.”
Dairy Farmer, Ashburton.
The two Dutch Belted/Friesian girls are close to calving (in calf to a Beltie) and we plan to milk them and rear some calves and make some cheese.
The Winter has been very wet this year and we, like everyone, are hanging out for the warmer days of Spring.
January/February 2010
Where does the time go? We have had a very good hay-making season with the sheds full for Winter. Start ED second cuts on some paddocks. The cattle are going to well fed.
The Standard Galloway girls were AI’d using Globex Xplosive, Diamond B Dessert Storm and Glenkelso Connor, we had only one return.
We AI’d two more Belties with Double-O-Seven and had one return, she is now running with the
bull. Our future Galloway Stud bull (pictured - click on picture to enlarge) has been turned away for the summer to grow before he is required to run with the Galloway females.We are finding the Standards slower growing than the Belties and need a bit more time before they start work.
Halter training has begun for two Galloway calves for Oxford Show. There is a Beltie heifer joining them and to add to the mix I have picked a very nice Limousin heifer calf to halter train by a very good French bull Sympa, the only Sympa progeny in NZ.
I am busy as Registrar for the Galloway Cattle Society working through the progeny returns and registration applications for the 2009 born calves and putting together the herd book pages.
One of my Wessex Saddleback pigs has had her 4th litter, a mix of 4 females and 5 males who are growing very well and real characters. The saddlebacks produce very good meat and do very well grazing free range. The demand is high for weaners as people prefer to raise there own meat for the freezer. Our own freezer is full of Saddleback pork and Galloway beef.
We are attempting to tan a Beltie hide and a black Galloway hide, both hides have lovely long hair. They are in the freezer until we have the time and plan to do the job ourselves. I might decide it would be easier to send them to NI and get them done, time will tell.
Work has begun on finding our next AI bull for the Galloway’s and will shortly begin for the Belties. It is a never ending quest to find the next AI bull as it can take a long time to get any semen available into NZ.
October/November
Both months have been busy with halter training and showing. Calving has finished and this years crop calves are looking very good with 70% of them being heifers. A big thanks needs to go to Gwyneth and Rueben for their help with halter training and house sitting while we were in Melbourne and also their help at the local shows.
We took some cattle to Ellesmere Show, Leeston on 17th October and although a first show for some of the yearlings they all led very well and came home with a few ribbons. Our Galloway bull got some very favorable comments and we are looking forward to him growing and maturing. He will be our stock bull to follow up AI of Galloway girls.
November saw us preparing for The Royal NZ Show and we took a team of 2 cows and calves, 2 yearling heifers and a yearling bull. All did very well and we were pleased with the haul of ribbons we took home. It was a long week with very early starts and late finishes and we were glad when Friday evening came and we could load up and head home.
Some of the Belted Galloway cows have been AI’d to Southfield Double O Seven from the UK and early indications are they have held to the AI. We have imported some Dun Galloway semen from Australia, Globex Xplosive, and this will be used over our Standard Galloways.
Hay making is around the corner so fingers crossed for a spell of good weather
September 2009
We visited Melbourne Show to watch the judging of the Galloway Feature classes. The judge was Keith Jones from Driftwood Plantation in the USA and 97 cattle were exhibited.
We visited 10 studs during our 12-day trip and saw some fantastic cattle, made some great contacts for future genetics and enjoyed the Aussie hospitality.
Through contacts made we are bringing in semen from 2 standard Galloway bulls for our own use.
There have been another 2 belted heifer calves and a black heifer calf and a black bull calf arrive, pregnancy testing will be organized for the Autumn calving cows and we have picked the next cows to be AI’d with overseas genetics.
6 belted bulls have been sold with only 2 belted and 1 black Galloway bull to sell.
Work has begun on 2 heifers and 2 bulls for showing this season, the first show Ellesmere A & P, Leeston is on 17th October followed by the Royal at Christchurch in November.
August 2009
This month saw our website up and running, thanks to Ross Pagan for all his help and ideas.
Calves have started to arrive and so far we have one Belted heifer and 3 Belted bulls. This month also saw the arrival of our first Black heifer (pictured below) and calving will progress throughout September and into October.
We have AI’d our first cows of the season using Southfield Double-O-Seven over some Belties and DB Desert Storm over a Black female. The choice of Galloway semen is very limited and this has prompted us to look at bringing in some semen from Australia, hopefully arriving sometime during September. We are now looking overseas for our next AI sire.
Two yearling bulls have had their nose rings inserted, one Galloway and one Beltie, and work is starting on what we will show this season.
We are off to Melbourne Show in September to attend the Galloway Feature event and hope to have pictures and news from there for our next update.
16 January 2009, The Christchurch Press reporter Tim Cronshaw wrote and article titles "Hooked by the white belt" regarding Carole and Warren's efforts to improve the genetics of the belted cow breed. For copyright reasons The Press prefer to retain control of the electronic version by hosting it on their website. However they were happy to provide a link to enable you to read the article by clicking here which is appreciated.
