Happy Christmas and a big thank you to all our customers who have purchased our Beltie Beef and help support our small farm over the course of the year - we much appreciate your custom and we wouldn't be here without you!

Thanks also to everyone that ordered our November/December beef - I think there will be some lovely Sirloin, Rib Joints and Fillets gracing your festive tables on the big day - Enjoy! 

If you are in need of any last minute "beefy cuts" we have recently fully stocked both the Farm Shop at Clinks Care Farm, Toft Monks and the Farm Shop at Hillfield Nursery, Haddiscoe.

"BEEF GIFT VOUCHERS"

In the meantime if you are looking for a last minute Christmas Gift our Beltie Beef Vouchers are popular and can still be emailed to your loved one in time for Christmas - £25 and £50 denominations available on the webshop.

We will next be taking beef orders in January for February collection/delivery.

You may notice I've had to change the heading from "beltie news" to "galloway news"....there's good reason for this!

At the end of every October the Belted and White Galloway Cattle Society hold their annual Show and Sale at Castle Douglas. I'm not going to lie this is normally one of the highlights of my year. It's a chance to head north from the marshes to the hills, meet up with other galloway enthusiasts for a good meal (beltie beef of course!), a few drinks and a ceilidh into the evening. This is then followed by a great exhibition of fine animals at the next day's show and sale. Sadly this year I couldn't make the trip in person, so had to make do with following events at the show and sale on-line. I've always been a great admirer of the White Galloway cattle, now somewhat rarer than their belted cousins, so I was really pleased to purchase a white in-calf cow called Dinky and her young heifer calf called Cottonbud, on-line, as the foundation for a new white galloway herd to run alongside the belties.

The new arrivals have settled in well with their stripey companions and we look forward to the arrival of the first white calf at Carr Farm next Spring.

In the meantime the beltie gang are all looking well, we will start weaning the calves over Christmas, they are now 7-9 months old so ready to give their mums a few months rest. Out of these youngsters the best heifers and bulls will be kept and registered as breeding animals and the remainder will be beef in future years. The final young 2024 born bull, "Waveney Bandit" headed off to a new home on the North Norfolk coast at the Holkham Estate a couple of weeks ago, we look forward to hearing how he gets on in the coming years.

In our last newsletter we were worrying about the shortage of hay going into the winter. Well so far the weather has been kind, the cattle have been out on the marshes until well into December, with us only moving the cows and calves onto winter grazing with some hay this week. We still have some steers on Burgh marshes where there is plenty of grass and at the time of writing it is not too wet. Of course there is still ample time for the winter to have a sting in its tail so we won't be taking anything for granted yet!

The winter brings some fabulous birds down on the marshes, we have already had tremendous numbers of pink-footed geese, lapwings and flocks of cattle egrets. Last year for the first time we had short-eared owls in our winter grazing fields, and this year the first have arrived just a few days ago. The winter grazing is rested for up to six months each year until December when bales are set out for rolling out to the cattle. Resting this area results in a long grass sward, which is ideal for field voles, that in turn provide food for the owls to enjoy!

Seasons Greetings!

As always thank you for your support
Nicola & David Chapman…and the Galloways!