Belted Galloway cattle, while still a back-runner among Western livestock breeds, is beginning to interest more ranchers who like the low cholesterol meat marketing value and high feed production efficiency of the Scottish import, making its U.S. debut in New York in 1939.

Utah rancher Gerald Anderson, a long-time beltie rancher near Price, who explains that a double hair layer on the animals makes them cold weather tolerant, leading to them to eat less feed that other breeds for energy when temperatures drop.

Belted Galloway calves show off their distinct "Oreo" look with a white band around their body against a black coat.

Belties get their name from the white stripe that rounds around their body against dun, red or black coat, giving rise to the term "Oreo cows" for the breed. A very fine layer of hair is overlaid with a coarser coat.

The attractive coloring of the belties is particularly appealing to women, says Anderson. "If I can get women to look at the cattle, they're ready to buy right on the spot," he says.

"They like the unique looks."

The cold endurance of the breed allows Anderson to calf from October through February. "The mothers are also very protective of the newborns," he adds. "I actually have less loss calving in the winter than early spring. The snow just doesn't bother the belties."

That allows him to go to market with larger cattle due to the earlier calving. His feeding efficiencies are enhanced by the Galloway's preference for roughage over alfalfa. "They'd rather dine on grass and leaves than hay," he notes.

Markets for the breed are brisk, with buyers on a waiting list for Anderson heifers, he says. "The market is good and we can get a premium over our other breeds."

Longevity is another plus for the breed, he adds. "It is very common to have cows in their late teens and still calving," Anderson says. One of his beltie cows continued to produce offspring until she was 20 years old.

The unusual look of the belties also makes them stars in cattle shows, since their mild demeanor lends to good exhibition qualities. "They're easy to handle," confirms Anderson. "Compared to some other breeds, the Galloway is extremely docile."

The beltie heritage dates back to the 17th Century, according to the Belted Galloway Society, a U.S. non-profit breeders association organized in 1951. Its appearance is first recorded in Scotland's Galloway province, a mountainous seacoast region where the weather helped improve the breed's endurance.

The belt, the society believes, may have been bred from Dutch Belt dairy cattle which exhibit the same characteristic white mid-section.

Anderson and his daughter, Traci Lee, helped form the Western Belted Galloway Association which serves 13 western states, including Hawaii and Alaska. For more information, go to their website at http://www.beltedgalloways.org. The Society website is at www.beltie.org.

For more on this story, see the May issue of Western Farmer-Stockman.