Wark Farm

Our Belties enjoying the splashes at the farm

August 2022

The Belted Galloway Cattle Society have just held their National Centenary show as part of the Wigtown Show last week. Unfortunately we were’t able to make it down but reading the show reports it looked like a fine day with a great display of cattle to be enjoyed - if you like that sort of thing, which, no prizes for guessing, I rather do. Indeed enjoying hanging around with Belties is, in part, why we have them here.

It is actually a fairly common question we get asked, Why Belted Galloway Cattle? Well in part I've just answered it, I’ve always had a fondness for them. I grew up in the south west. Beltie Spotting on travels around Galloway was a family sport and they’d always be the cattle I’d want to see when going round the local agricultural shows. So when I took on the farm here they were very much in for a shout as the breed of choice for the cow herd. There were however some rather more solid reasons to add to my emotional leanings.

As the intent from day one was to try to run the farm as a high wildlife value farm with a low input farming system the cows we kept would need to be happy in that environment. They would need to be able to grow well on an all grass diet (no grain feeding) including tidying up ‘low value’ forage such as the wetland areas and the wildflower meadows late in the summer. As I was also working full time off the farm when I got the first cows they also had to be low maintenance, in particular easy calving; I didn’t want to be up all night assisting every time a cow calved and then try to do a job off farm the next day (actually that applies just as much today still, I prefer to sleep at night where possible!). We don't house the cows through the winter either and so they would need to be hardy and hairy enough to not be unduly phased by an Aberdeenshire winter at 1,000ft. Knowing that even from day one we were likely to try to direct sell the meat from the herd, then the meat had to be good stuff, flavour in particular, beef that tastes of beef is a good place to start when selling. And as an adjunct to that, selling requires marketing, in a region where everyone else was selling Aberdeen Angus, would one do the same, or try something different … ?

As the intent from day one was to try to run the farm as a high wildlife value farm with a low input farming system the cows we kept would need to be happy in that environment. They would need to be able to grow well on an all grass diet (no grain feeding) including tidying up ‘low value’ forage such as the wetland areas and the wildflower meadows late in the summer. As I was also working full time off the farm when I got the first cows they also had to be low maintenance, in particular easy calving; I didn’t want to be up all night assisting every time a cow calved and then try to do a job off farm the next day (actually that applies just as much today still, I prefer to sleep at night where possible!). We don't house the cows through the winter either and so they would need to be hardy and hairy enough to not be unduly phased by an Aberdeenshire winter at 1,000ft. Knowing that even from day one we were likely to try to direct sell the meat from the herd, then the meat had to be good stuff, flavour in particular, beef that tastes of beef is a good place to start when selling. And as an adjunct to that, selling requires marketing, in a region where everyone else was selling Aberdeen Angus, would one do the same, or try something different … ?

in the 18 years that have passed since the first heifers (young females) arrived to start the Wark herd (I can still visualise the day each of those first animals arrived) I think the Belties have thoroughly justified all the hopes that we had for them. Not that it’s always been an easy run, many tears were shed at the loss of an early calf, and there are always highs and lows every year. But as we have grown from those initial 8 animals to around 100 (including all the cows and growing cattle) my fondness for the breed remains as strong as ever, stronger even. It’s no longer a breed, it’s our herd. In that herd are multiple generations of different ‘families’, lines coming down from those first heifers. Each line has it’s own traits and characteristics, physical and temperamental and as we’ve brought in breeding bulls from different herds over the years and selected the home bred females we prefer, the lines have evolved to become our types of Belties, suited to this bit of Aberdeenshire hillside. There is tremendous richness in knowing.

We’ve never shown our cattle in any of the breed competitions, time has never allowed, but I think we have a pretty decent bunch of Belties roaming around here now and having reached our desired herd size we are now selling surplus breeding females to others farms starting or expanding on their Beltie journeys. When we brought home our first heifer the breed was on the Rare Breed Survival Trust at risk register, having taken awful losses during the foot and mouth outbreak. Happily number are strong again today and I hope as farming adapts to the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss the Belties will continue to have their place.

The August Order Form is now available online, link below. We have our full range of Belted Galloway Beef and Hebridean lamb/hogget available along with a limited range of bacon and a good range of pies.

OOrders will be available for delivery on Friday 19th August or to collect from Banchory and Bridge of Don farmers market on Saturday 20th August or from the farm on Sunday 21st (11am - 2pm).

As ever please get in touch if you have any queries.

Best wishes

Laurel & SaM

August 2022 Order Form