Galloway cattle
The Galloway beef is suitable for year-round outdoor rearing small to medium frame hornless robust breed. It comes from South-West Scotland.
Features
An important feature of Galloway is their double coat with long, wavy outer coat and fine, dense undercoat. This, together with their relatively thick skin and the adjusted thrifty metabolism making the Galloways particularly robust. Therefore, they can also survive harsh winters outdoors without any problems. Galloways are grown today worldwide in the pigmentation "black (black), " dun " ( dun, yellow brown) and " red "(red - brown). White Galloway is in Germany a color variation of Galloway, which is characterized by a white coat and in which, ideally, only the ears, the nose, the feet and bodies have the eyes one of the above pigmentation. Riggit Galloway is also a color variation which exists in all three pigmentation, but in which characteristic a white back pinto and other unpigmented areas on the hind legs and can be found on the head.
Belted Galloway in Germany is also a color variation of Galloway, in most other countries, however, is considered a unique breed of cattle, which purely externally distinguished by the abdomen through their unpigmented "belt" ( white fur stripes).
Historical
In the prehistoric British Isles there were two archetypes of today's cattle breeds: one was hornless ( ancestors of Galloway ), the other had short horns (later Highland, Devon and Hereford cattle).
The first historical description of these animals goes back to the poet Livius († 207-200 BC). The Romans already knew the delicious meat of the black cattle. These were the only living things that could happen to Hadrian's Wall, which protected the Roman province of Britannia from the tribes of Scotland, from the north. Scottish cooker books have been made since the Middle Ages, but fell a fire in the Ministry of Agriculture in Edinburgh in 1851 to the victim. 1878 saw the establishment of the Galloway Cattle Society in Castle Douglas exclusively for monochrome animals. In 1921, the Belted Galloway Cattle Society, which registered in separate herd book sections also Riggets and White Galloways followed. In Germany the different breeds can be mated together and entered in a mixed herd book of all Galloway variants since 2002. For several years, Galloway cattle are increasingly being used for the care of brownfields and extensive grassland in nature conservation.
White Galloways
The White Galloways are also hornless Scottish cattle that are suitable for year-round free range and are among the most extensive, robust beef cattle breeds. The major portion of their fur is almost white, but there are usually black, sometimes blonde or red- brown pigmentation on the ears, mouth, feet and around the eyes. However, these features are based on heterozygosity, so that they are preserved only with certain probabilities according to Mendelian rules. Thus, 25 % occur in homozygous pure breeding white Galloway, 50 % heterozygous, corresponding to the phenotype of the output generation, and 25 % single color ( usually black ) Galloway, showing neither white drawing, nor can inherit. The homozygous white Galloways turn correspond not to the breeding goal, since the characteristic pigmentation is missing. When bred to monochrome animals but caused 100% heterozygous animals with characteristic Pigmentierung.Anpaarungen of heterozygous animals with monochromatic bring again Mendelian 50 % heterozygous and 50 % monochrome animals.
These facts suggest the theory that the drawing is a relic of an intersection of Galloway with the English White Park Cattle, which has been preserved by the appealing appearance. Since this intersection has most likely leave after many generations of mating with monochromatic Galloway only the changed locus for the externally visible drawing different characteristics (such as an increased milk yield ) remain in comparison to solid Galloway's pure speculation.
There is disagreement among breeders about how far already justify the separate herd book sections in the UK a separate breed designation for the White Galloways. It is also often said that the gene pool of these cattle was not enough of a separate species, as the still living white Galloways after they were once nearly extinct, supposedly only two mother cows, one from Canada and one from Scotland, are descended.
Inheritance of color strokes
With the help of a model with three different loci can calculate probabilities for the color impact of the calf according to Mendel's laws at mating of the different color beats. So come in all matings to a calf whose color impact is not always explain the basis of the phenotypes of the parents, but at least always based their genotypes. Thus, in White Galloways over many generations a Riggit or Belted gene remain unnoticed and then come back to the expression. In general, however, that any white markings, whether at White - Riggit or Belted Galloway does not hide is inherited in solid colored Galloway. Almost all matings lead to the color varieties listed. A special exception if there is Belted gene and gene Riggit come together and thus resulting in a strange mixture of these color varieties. To avoid such cases and for " keeping the genetics of the individual color strokes " cries the Federal Association of German Galloway breeders ( BDG) on the pure breeding of the different color beats. In particular, the Belted Galloway are already bred by reputable breeders only in pure culture. At White and Galloway Riggit the breeder about the need for pure breeding disagree. The problem of heterozygosity of White Galloway described above also applies to Riggit Galloway, so that when two color varieties in pure culture only 50 % of the offspring correspond to the phenotype of the parents and thus the breeding goal. Homozygous Riggits and homozygous White Galloways are fully pigmented and externally indistinguishable.
Inheritance of pigmentation
For the inheritance of pigmentation BLACK, RED DUN and also easy to put up -to-understand rules according to Mendel. So it can be said that a DUN genetic trait is visible externally always, a genetic trait BLACK exclusively in dark blonde Mischerbgang can remain invisible with DUN and that a recessive gene RED may be hidden in the phenotype of the other pigmentations. If an animal is phenotypically RED, so it has no facilities for other pigmentations. If an animal apricot- farbend it is the rare case of a homozygous RED- Galloway with an additional DUN system.
Dimensions and weights
Bulls: Height at withers: approx 136 cm, weight: 900 kg; Cows withers: about 124 cm, weight: about 600 kg