Atwood Farm plans to transfer the registrations of our herd to the Canadian Galloway Society in the second half of 2025.

Why are we making this future change?

The Canadian Galloway Society is aligned with Atwood Farm’s strong belief in protecting the purity of the Belted Galloway breed. They have stricter registration requirements for the cattle in their herd book. This is aligned with Atwood’s Farms focus on strengthening our genetics and promoting the breed.

Atwood Farm believes in maintaining strong personal and business relationships. Our relationship with the Canadian Livestock Records Corp (CLRC) is much stronger than that of the leaders in the US Belted Galloway Society.

We are not aligned with the US Belted Galloway Society’s leadership, promotion of Percentage (Belted Galloway cross) cattle in shows and in the Focus quarterly magazine and the transition to Digital Beef.

In the United States, There is too much focus on the 2% of the farms who show cattle and not enough focus on the 98% of the farms whose goal is raising quality cattle and protecting the purity of the Belted Galloway breed.

There are animals which are past National Champion show bulls, Lifetime Award Winning animals, bulls listed in the Belted Galloway Sire Catalog which DO NOT qualify for Canada’s strict registration requirements. These animals are being “promoted” as being the best in the United States. But are they really the best or are they the best because they are being promoted that way? Some of the best cattle in the United States may never have stepped in a show ring. We encourage all farms to thoroughly research these pedigrees.

According to the January 2024 “The Focus” Belted Galloway publication there were 87 percentage females and 901 Purebred females registered in the 2024 herd book. 8.8% of the registered females in the Registered Belted Galloway herd book do not have Belted Galloway genetics. How is this keeping Belted Galloway genetics pure? Atwood Farm would like to see ZERO percentages being added the Registered herd book and ZERO percentage animals being shown and promoted at fairs.

What is Atwood Farm doing to protect the purity of the breed?

-focusing on continually improving the genetics of our already strong herd.

-acquired strong genetic embryos from Driftwood Plantation LLC and embryos at the 2025 National Belted Galloway Sale.

-purchased semen from the UK (Boreland James Bond and Mochrum Huckleberry), Australia (Shiralee Moonshine) and New Zealand (Castle Galloway Ficus).

***Atwood Farm does NOT have any other breed of cattle on our property. We are 100% invested in our Registered Belted Galloways.

Atwood Farm encourages ALL farms who are interested in protecting the purity of the breed to research and also consider the move to the Canadian Galloway Society and return to CLRC.

Please reach out if you have any questions.

Kerry Atwood

Atwood Farm

617-223-1164

kerryjatwood@yahoo.com or atwoodfarmbelties@gmail.com