Identifying the bulls that shaped the Belted Galloway breed in the U.S. requires careful study of our first Herd Book, and a long memory. The animals that influenced the U.S. Beltie population were imported or bred by the handful of breeders who founded our Society in the early 1950s. Twenty years later we had 39 members who had registered 729 bulls, less than two dozen of these imported.

No account of landmark bulls is complete without mention of Harry Prock’s first import, Boreland Admiral, U.S. registration number 1B. Prock brought Admiral to the U.S. at the tail end of the 1940s, along with 19 good females. Admiral sired a new generation of good bulls at Hapwood Farm in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, but Hapwood Baron sired by Roberton Bruce in Scotland was generally considered “Harry’s best bull.”

Some of the imported animals were later sold to A.H. Chatfield, Jr. for Aldermere Farm in Maine and a few went to Fred Johnson’s Summitcrest Farm in Ohio. One of the cows sold to Chatfield delivered Aldermere’s first herd sire, Aldermere Hapwood Dandie, while quarantined in Canada awaiting entrance to this country. 

In the late 1950s Aldermere imported Mochrum Orion, and in 1960 brought in Burnside Great Scot, the 1959 supreme champion in Scotland. Orion and Great Scot produced quite a few sons including Aldermere Pompey, a bull that sired many calves; and Aldermere Kennebec who sired dozens at Green Arpents and other farms in Canada.

H. Gordon Green in Quebec was building his Green Arpents herd during these years, and many bulls were sold, shared or leased back and forth among the early U.S. and Canadian Belted Galloway breeders. 

General James A. Van Fleet began his herd in Florida in the 1950s with some of Harry Prock’s animals, and began importing from Scotland in the 1960s. His first importation included the bull Mossend Golden Boy. In 1975 he imported Mochrum Tommy along with heifers from the Mark herd. Mossend Golden Boy produced many fine animals at General Van Fleet’s Withlacoochee Ranch in Florida and later at Sleepy Creek in Virginia. 

Among Golden Boy’s progeny was Sleepy Creek Lord Fleetwell, the first Beltie A.I. bull in the U.S. Artificial insemination is taken for granted today, but it was considered innovative at the time. The Society found it necessary to debate the topic at length before eventually passing a rule permitting A.I. calves in the registry.

Actually, Lord Fleetwell did not add that many animals to the registry, perhaps because there were few breeders around to purchase the semen, and even fewer who understood how to use this new tool. Not too many years later semen from Beaver Dam Barry-M was drawn by Ernie Cutter, Jr. in New Hampshire, and many straws were sold. In the 1980s and 1990s Barry-M sired almost 150 registered progeny.

While Prock, Chatfield and Van Fleet dominated the early days of the breed in the eastern part of the country, J.W. Griffith’s Gailwen herd was quietly growing in Texas, later moved to Colorado. In the 1960s Griffith imported four bulls plus a dozen females from Scotland, and is credited with bringing in the highly respected 2200-lb. bull Mark Substance along with top quality animals from Scotland’s Glenzier herd.
 Frank Selke’s Rolling Range in Canada, using Aldermere Kennebec and Sleepy Creek Mackay as sires, in about 1970 produced among others Rolling Range Longfellow, heavily used at Green Arpents.

Victor Zerbs, Jr.’s Homestead Farm in Ohio, working in Summitcrest and Aldermere lines, produced some good bulls, notably Homestead John. Harry T. Burn’s Hathburn Farm in Tennessee used Aldermere and Green Arpents sires to produce Hathburn Captain, Baron and Fantastic, among others.

A quick scan of the influential bulls points toward the men who shaped the breed’s direction in this country. Meetings were lively affairs in those days, with opinions often sharply divided. A.H. Chatfield, Jr. felt strongly that we must permit upbreeding to allow our herd population and membership to grow. He also worked tirelessly, as did Ernie Cutter at Beaver Dam, to breed animals that would bring Belted Galloway frame scores up from 3 and 4 to 5 or 6.

General Van Fleet and H. Gordon Green felt that the breed should remain pure as well as true to the “Scottish hill cattle” type, that is, shorter-legged with sturdy bodies. 

Our herd population today reflects these different approaches, and we have a fairly wide range of mature heights, weights and styles.

Aldermere Pompey, c. 7/2/63, sired by Burnside 
Great Scot, with (a very young) Dwight Howard.

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[Photos in this article from A.H. Chatfield, Jr.’s files at Aldermere Farm, or reprinted from the Herd Book of the Belted Galloway Society, Vol. I.]

Hapwood Baron, c. 6/23/51, sired by Roberton Bruce in Scotland.

Aldermere Hapwood Dandie, c. 2/14/52, sired by Glenzier Wainwright in Scotland

Burnside Great Scot, c. 9/20/55, sired by Whittingehame Graham in Scotland

Mochrum Orion (stretching), c. 5/7/54, sired by Boreland Cygnet in Scotland

Sleepy Creek Mark Malcolm, c. 7/6/67,  sired by Mossend Golden Boy

Sleepy Creek Mackay, c. 7/9/66, at first Belted Galloway Sale in U.S., held at Fred Johnson’s Summitcrest Farm in Ohio on October 13, 1967. Looking on, the Chatfields and Dwight Howard. ‘Chat’ often said that his wife Marion had ‘a good eye for cattle,’ and he relied on her judgment.