NEWS PRO GALLOWAY
These contributions are intended to help achieve constructive discussions about a sensible and reasonable approach to Galloway breeding, without constantly looking back and blocking the view of necessary developments and new things.
What particularly connects us with the global Galloway family is our love for cattle and our joy in producing valuable grass-based beef.
Galloways are not the only thing in our lives - but they are unique!
BECHTELSBERG FESTIVAL AT THE 2023 WORLD'S LARGEST GALLOWAY SHOW IN ALSFELD/HESSEN
The judge at this year's Galloway Open was Merlin Bradley from Australia. It wasn't an easy task for him, as the quality in the individual classes was very high. With the 1a animals Yacky and Harmonie, we presented two cattle for the final round at the beginning of the judging competition. Afterwards, cows and calves were ranked in four age groups in the monochrome Galloways. Here we were able to have three class winners: Yelina, Yjohanna and Ypsilon. Yule vom Bechtelsberg, now owned by Moritz and Bernd Schlichterle, completed the round as the fourth class winner from our kennel. When selecting the winners, the nine-year-old El Toro daughter Ypsilon was chosen as the winner with her outstanding bull calf on foot. The typical first cow Yelina took the reserve victory with her strong cow calf. With the bulls, the success story continued with our show animals. Our Sid son Saam vom Bechtelsberg (in a breeding partnership with Steffen Schubert, Bad Rodach) was the winner of the old bulls. Saam is a framed, elongated eye-catcher with good foundations. There was also a sash for us with the young bulls. The winner was the very young Vagrant son Van Gogh. Following the individual competitions, 5 companies presented a collection with at least three animals. Our top three cows and their good calves were also placed in first place as the winning group in the company collection.
CONGRATULATIONS!
CAISSY FROM BECHTELSBERG
WILL BE RESERVE WINNER
Bought at the best off heifer auction in Gross Kreuz. And in Viöl we won the reserve champion title against a strong conference! Congratulations!
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GALLOWAY HEIFER IN GROSS KREUTZ AT “BEST OF” 2023 FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE
Caissy from Bechtelsberg is now in Schleswig Holstein. We congratulate the new owners and wish them lots of fun and joy as well as maximum success.
UPDATE: NEWS ARE HERE!
NEW, SMALL BUT FINE STOVES IN FAM'S RANDOW BREAK. White
UPDATE: New blood is here! New, small but fine Galloway herd in the Randow Bruch just outside Stettin. It all started with a phone call more than 5 years ago. Then the visit of the Weiß family in Ottrau, participation in the beginners' seminar and then finally on February 8th the four cattle moved into their new home. Everything was perfectly prepared: pasture tent, water supply and the wolf-repellent fence. Now we are all excitedly waiting for the first calves from the top bulls Doron and El Torro from Bechtelsberg.
THE BEEF - A MULTI-TALENT
In Chapter 11 of the Critical Agricultural Report 2023, with the focus on: “Agriculture and nutrition for a world in transition,” Andrea Lenkert-Hörrmann describes the results of a very interesting slow food project in 7 sections: - The cattle - a three-purpose animal. Milk, meat and ecosystem services - Maintain racial diversity - Redefine performance. Good forage utilization and feed efficiency, health, fertility and off-road mobility - Not all pastures are the same. In addition to short grass pasture-holistic grazing / mobgrazing - Also young bulls in the pasture. Cow-bound calf rearing and pasture fattening - Good handling of the animals. LSS - Low-stress and artisanal slaughtering. No long live animal transports, sufficient maturation and consistent quality - The planetary boundaries of our dinner plate. Sustainable and environmentally friendly cattle farming will lead to less meat consumption but better beef. From this the author derives the following requirements: 1. Cattle belong on pasture and year-round grazing must be better promoted. 2. Breeding orientation needs to be corrected. 3. The meat trade must be politically supported. 4. The commercial class regulation must be adapted to the special qualities of pasture-raised beef. 5. Further training for people from crafts, agriculture and gastronomy must be promoted. 6. Reduce meat consumption according to the space available to us. This and many other interesting articles can be read on the Internet at – “The critical agricultural report 2023”. It's good that the vast majority of Galloway breeders and keepers have been on this path for years and are doing a lot of things right.
HOW IS THE INDEX CALCULATED?
THE APPROVAL OF A GALLOWAY BULL?
The starting value is 100. If the bull gains less than 700g per day, one point is deducted (99 points). If the bull gains more than 700g per day, one point is added (101 points). Points are also included for the licensing grades in type, musculature and skeleton. 101.0 starting number e.g. with grade 8 in type + 10.8 points e.g. with grade 8 in musculature + 5.4 points e.g. with grade 8 in the skeleton + 10.8 points ---> Index of 128.0 points 99.0 starting number e.g. with grade 7 in type + 5.4 points e.g. with grade 7 in musculature + 2.7 points e.g. with grade 7 in the skeleton + 5.4 points ---> Index of 114.5 points The whole thing is automatically calculated and printed out by the system after the breeding certificate has been entered.
YUNA-164
164 is the end number of the ear tag of Yuna, our currently oldest cow in the Bechtelsberg Galloway herd. At almost 17 years old, she is the mother of a very successful cow family. Yuna has calved a total of 12 times by 2020. Half of their calves stayed with us as female offspring or for direct marketing and the other half enriched other breeding herds throughout Germany. Particularly worthy of mention here is Oleg vom Bechtelsberg, their first calf, who is still in use in the Taunus today and is the best bull in Hesse on the Galloway's TOP list. Her three daughters in our herd are all high-performing and correct cows. Yoke and Yohanna vom Bechtelsberg have both already won a Federal Reserve Champion title and are passing on the qualities of their dam line. Some breeding bulls have already been sold to various breeding herds throughout Europe, even in the mountains of Scotland. Now she no longer has a calf and is enjoying her twilight years on the southern slope of the Bechtelsberg with a great panorama all the way to the Marburger Land. In the spring she goes to our branch in Buchenau as lead cow with a few female weanlings.
HIGHLAND LADDIE
Born in 2010, at the age of one year at the spring show and auction in Castle Douglas Junior Champion. We were able to purchase him for our breeding and he was allowed to do his job here in the spring. We, the so-called Laddie Syndicate: Axel Mallunat, Karlu von Hollen, Bernd Kinkhorst and Horst Kraft. So every year he took turns breeding in a different herd, and when he was done with that, four more companies were added in whose mother cow herds he was allowed to work. Many of his offspring went into breeding and were promoted to the herd book level A due to a good rating. Particularly worthy of mention here is Hatschi vom Bechtelsberg, who became the winning bull at the federal show in Erfurt. For this reason, he leads the top list of Galloway bulls in Germany with 30 A-classified offspring. We wish all Galloway herdbook businesses continued fun and success with their offspring and are always happy when we meet animals from his offspring.
DOUBLE GENE
The double-lender gene, which is rarely found among the Galloway, not only heats up the tempers of the BDG board. We now very much hope that the breeding committee of the Beef Cattle Breeding Managers Conference will exercise the necessary prudence and foresight and not make any hasty decisions or resolutions in this regard. The opinion of “Mutterkuh Schweiz”, as found on their homepage, is certainly helpful and correct: With more and more data and improved analysis methods, new genetic defects are discovered almost every day. This means our animals are not healthier, but neither are they sicker. However, the findings require new strategies in selection and mating planning. As before, excluding all carriers of discovered genetic defects from breeding can be dangerous in terms of breeding progress and the preservation of genetic diversity. Rather, it is about using the available information to avoid risk pairings. According to vit in Verden in May 2022, the allele frequency of the variant nt821 (M1) was 0.9% in the Belted Galloway and among the Galloway 2.4%. In F94L (M3) the frequency was 0.6%. As long as the frequency is below 5% and there are no reports of difficult births in connection with the Doppellender gene, we as breeders should not allow ourselves to be unsettled and frightened. However, as described above, with the help of the information available, you can make decisions about matings on your own responsibility.