Producing lean, healthy grass-raised and grass-finished beef!
Why Belted Galloway?
Belted Galloway cattle are well-suited for a grass-fed operation. Belted Galloway cattle originated in the western lowland Galloway district of Scotland, beside the Irish Sea. The cattle forage well, and make the most of marginal grasslands. And they look pretty spread out across the green pastures of Blackwater Bend Farm!
Belted Galloway cattle are naturally polled, which means they do not grow horns. Belted Galloways come in three approved base colors, all with a white band: black, red, and dun (light brown). Blackwater Bend Farm's herd is mostly black with white bands, although we have a few dun with white, and some of our bloodlines contain a history of red coloring. It's possible that a red and white calf might emerge someday! After four years of using a dun bull, we have added a lot of dun cows to our herd. Now we are changing to a new herd bull who is black with a white band.
Grass-fed and Grass-finished
Most cattle are grass-fed for some part of their life. Our cattle begin their lives by drinking healthy milk delivered upon request by their mother! They will begin eating grass at an early age, and then wean off their mother's milk and get all of their sustenance from the pastures of Blackwater Bend Farm. We also use grass-based cubes to improve their protein intake during winter. The secondary purpose of the cubes is to spoil the cattle into following the feed bucket! This helps us move cows from one pasture to another, or recover animals who get out of the pasture.
Most supermarket beef spends the last 3-6 months of their life in a feedlot eating large quantities of corn. Corn is not a natural diet for cattle, which have grazed grasslands for generations. The corn adds marbling fat in the muscle tissues. Although marbling has been prized for the past few decades, we now know the health benefits of grass-finished, naturally-lean beef typically found in Belted Galloway cattle.
To learn more about healthy, lean Belted Galloway beef, read the studies reported by the U.S. Belted Galloway Society:
More about this beef.
Belted Galloway cattle are well-suited for a grass-fed operation. Belted Galloway cattle originated in the western lowland Galloway district of Scotland, beside the Irish Sea. The cattle forage well, and make the most of marginal grasslands. And they look pretty spread out across the green pastures of Blackwater Bend Farm!
Belted Galloway cattle are naturally polled, which means they do not grow horns. Belted Galloways come in three approved base colors, all with a white band: black, red, and dun (light brown). Blackwater Bend Farm's herd is mostly black with white bands, although we have a few dun with white, and some of our bloodlines contain a history of red coloring. It's possible that a red and white calf might emerge someday! After four years of using a dun bull, we have added a lot of dun cows to our herd. Now we are changing to a new herd bull who is black with a white band.
Grass-fed and Grass-finished
Most cattle are grass-fed for some part of their life. Our cattle begin their lives by drinking healthy milk delivered upon request by their mother! They will begin eating grass at an early age, and then wean off their mother's milk and get all of their sustenance from the pastures of Blackwater Bend Farm. We also use grass-based cubes to improve their protein intake during winter. The secondary purpose of the cubes is to spoil the cattle into following the feed bucket! This helps us move cows from one pasture to another, or recover animals who get out of the pasture.
Most supermarket beef spends the last 3-6 months of their life in a feedlot eating large quantities of corn. Corn is not a natural diet for cattle, which have grazed grasslands for generations. The corn adds marbling fat in the muscle tissues. Although marbling has been prized for the past few decades, we now know the health benefits of grass-finished, naturally-lean beef typically found in Belted Galloway cattle.
To learn more about healthy, lean Belted Galloway beef, read the studies reported by the U.S. Belted Galloway Society:
More about this beef.
Blackwater Bend Farm * 828 NE 771 Road * Knob Noster * MO * 65336