New! Online photo album with pictures of breeding stock currently for sale. Contact us for further information. Visit Breeding Stock for Sale Package pricing applies!

 

Galloway Breeding Stock

When we sell breeding stock, we won’t sell you anything that we wouldn’t want to keep for ourselves. We hold back very few bulls, so when we offer a bull for sale, you can rest assured that we are really thrilled with him. Cattle appropriate for grassfed beef production are not your typical sale barn cattle, and as such can be difficult to locate. So if you are searching for breeding stock for your grassfed beef operation, we can help. Even if we don’t have what you’re looking for, we have connections. Call us at (620) 343-6757 or email us for current offerings.

Marshwood Farm Gant

He will be entering the line up this winter, siring fall calves for 2008.

Marshwood Farm Gant

Nomad's Dreamer

RFLTD Nomad's Dreamer (below), 3 years of age, grazing fall pasture. He combines champion carcass genetics of the 1970's with Certified Meat Sire genetics of the late 60's and early 70's.

RFLTD Nomad's Dreamer —Renaissance Farms Ltd

McDuff

Renaissance Farms Ltd herdsire, McDuff of Lone Pine.

McDuff —Renaissance Farms Ltd

 

Add Galloway genetics to your beef program

Chances are you've landed on our breeding stock page because you already know you want to add Galloway genetics to your beef program. If calving-ease, hybrid vigor, carcass quality and feed efficiency are important factors in your beef program, you need Galloway genetics in your herd. Maternal efficiency is rapidly becoming one of the most significant attributes of the profitable cowherd. Galloway excel as an efficient maternal breed.

Galloway were known centuries ago for their durability in the wilds and their premium meat at the butchers block.

Our cattle are raised under a 'forage-only' plan. We expect our cattle to exhibit a strong foraging ability that lets them see to their own good growth and health.

Sericea lespedeza

Got Sericea? For years we've wondered if our Galloway would consume Sericea, but we've found it in our pastures on only one occasion. But in 2009 we leased an additional 32 acre pasture that lies adjacent to another lease. Mid summer we were disheartened to discover a patch of Sericea approximately 1/8 acre in size. The cattle had not had access to that pasture yet, but in early October about a dozen yearlings were added. Two weeks later we were checking cattle and noticed that the Sericea patch was completely gone... they had eaten it to the ground. This is what we observed. We will keep an eye on this pasture again this year, and post additional findings here. But Galloway are known to be non-selective grazers, and we have observed them regularly consuming plants that neighboring herds do not. So we think there is a very good liklihood that our Galloway will continue to dine on the Sericea, saving our landlord big money for control of this noxious weed.

Real Life Scenario

The winter of 2006-07 will be remembered by many in the Great Plains region as one of drought, hay shortages, and painfully high hay prices. Things in Kansas were certainly no exception. While we typically do not begin feeding hay to the cowherd until January, we found ourselves dipping into the hay supply in November, trying to stretch some very poor pasture for all it was worth (which wasn't much!).

About that time, we were given the chance to lease 85 acres of native grass and brush from a neighbor who had thinned down his herd. This parcel had rested all summer, and has about 50% brush and timber and 50% native. The native is primarily warm season grasses, and by December when we took possession, they were as cooked and bleached as they could be. But in under the brush and timber there was fescue and smooth brome grass. We turned 21 head in there on December 7, including 5 cows with their fall calves at side, some first calf heifers due to calve this summer, a few spring calving cows, and a 5-year old bull.

They received nothing from us until the second week of February, save an occasional square bale of alfalfa to teach them to come to the gate when called. Then in February we set out a round bale of grass hay, which they devoured in two days. We subsequently fed 3 more round bales, and fed them a couple of square bales of alfalfa about twice a week to bump up their protein as a means of increasing intake of the now completely dormant cool season grasses.

Fall-born calves forage during the 2006-07 winter.

Temperatures grew very cold, which meant daily trips to break ice on the pond. I would walk in the back way, cross the fence, break the ice and call them up. Never once did they bawl at me or try to follow me looking for a handout. After drinking, they would stand around chewing their cud or eating the buck brush and cedar trees. In all, we figure each cow wintering at that location received a total of around 270 pounds of hay over the course of the three and a half months prior to green up.

I calculated how much money we would have spent on prairie hay (usually around 5% protein) at this year's price of $90 per ton. If the average consumption would have been 25# per day, assuming we limit fed them (which would involve additional fuel and labor costs), for 90 days we would have spent $101.25 per animal (ignoring the hay consumption of the calves, even though some were August and September born), multiplied by 15 (the number of animals in the yearling to adult range), for a projected feed cost (and thus savings) of $1518.75. Now, do I think just any group of cattle could have been tossed in that place and asked to do what ours did? Not on your life. It comes down to the efficiency of our moderately framed Galloway cows, coupled with their non-selective grazing habits.

Incidentally, the fall calvers maintained their pregnancies, the calves were weaned in late April, healthy and happy, albeit a bit lighter than usual! To me, one of the beauties of the Galloway cow is her ability, and willingness, to do what needs to be done in order to wean off a healthy calf and rebreed in the process. She more than pays her own way!

We have grown to seriously appreciate the calving ease of these cattle, and now regularly calve even first calf heifers at our main pasture 13 miles from home.

For an interesting perspective on the value of the Galloway cow or Galloway-cross cow on the working ranch, http://www.galloway-world.org/intconf/welsch.htm.

See our Related Links page to find more information about Galloway cattle.

(A note about email! You probably already know this, but email can be unreliable at times. We always respond to every inquiry. So if you have emailed us and do not receive a reply within a day or two, please do give us a call.)