Belted Galloway

A traditional Scottish breed of beef cattle marked by a broad white belt encircling an otherwise black body, developed from the Galloway cattle of southwestern Scotland and established as a distinct breed in 1921. Bred to thrive on the poor upland pastures and windswept moorland of the Galloway region, its exact ancestry is unclear, though the white belt that distinguishes it from solid black Galloway cattle is often thought to have come from crossbreeding with the similarly marked Dutch Lakenvelder. Belted Galloways are raised principally for beef, valued for their hardiness in harsh climates, and are also kept for ornamental purposes and for conservation grazing that manages vegetation on marginal land.