PURE GRASS BEEF
BRITISH BREEDS OF LIVESTOCK, Second Edition, BOARD OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES, 1913, pp. 54-55
Value for Crossing.—Galloways are highly valued for crossing purposes, with a view to the production of beef animals; the calves produced are almost invariably hornless, and if the other breed is dark roan or red in colour, the majority of the crosses are black. When crossed with white or light-roan Shorthorns, the majority of the offspring are polled blue-greys, and these crosses have such a
great reputation as grazing and fattening animals that for crossing with Galloway cows white Shorthorn bulls are used almost exclusively. Blue-greys are bred by crossing either way. The champion at Norwich, Birmingham, and Smithfield fat-stock shows in 1897 was a blue-grey out of a white Shorthorn cow by a Galloway bull.
photo from Farm live stock of Great Britain, 1907
By Robert Wallace, Loudon M. Douglas, Primrose McConnell, W. B. Wale
From The Complete Grazier and Farmers' and Cattle-Breeder's Assistant, William Fream, Willam Youatt, 1863
In the Smithfield and other leading markets Galloway beef is ranked among "prime Scots." The excellent cross—in great favour with butchers under the name of the " blue-grey "—between the Galloway cow and the Shorthorn bull yields a beautifully mixed flesh, and the infusion of Shorthorn blood induces earlier maturity than is characteristic of the pure Galloway.
photo and text from Farm live stock of Great Britain, 1907
By Robert Wallace, Loudon M. Douglas, Primrose McConnell, W. B. Wale
Calves produced by a Shorthorn bull, if he be white or light roan, are prevalently blue-grey or uniform mealy roan, polled, and much more like the Galloway than the Shorthorn. At times the colour is black, and on rare occasions white with black points. Alex. Gordon, of Cullinaw, Castle Douglas, has bred a considerable number of white crosses with black points by a white Shorthorn bull from grey cows possessing very little cross blood, and on one occasion from a pure Galloway cow.
A strawberry roan or red bull gets more red crosses than blue-greys. So important is the matter of colour and so superior the blue-grey as a market quality, that white Shorthorn bulls are being systematically bred to supply the Galloway breeders in the North of England from two white parents, to emphasize the white tendency.
White cattle with black noses, a few black hairs about the ear, and the dark Galloway eye are common in the Galloway cattle district of Northumberland. They are mostly the result of a second cross, a Shorthorn bull on a blue-grey heifer, although this marking sometimes occurs in the first cross. " General" (Plate LX.), the blue-grey bullock which in 1897 was champion at Norwich, Birmingham, and Smithfield, was by a Galloway bull out of a white Shorthorn cow.
Copyright 2010 PUREGRASS BEEF. All rights reserved.