About the Society
The Society’s charter is preambled, “The object is to promote the Belted Galloway breed of cattle, to preserve the purity of the breed by maintaining pedigree records and data, to disseminate information relative to said breed of cattle and to carry on all legal and proper activities to effectuate the primary purpose of the corporation.”About Belted Galloway Society
The first recorded importation of Belted Galloway stock to North America occurred in 1939, when a dozen bred heifers and a bull were transported to a Mrs. McLean at East Kortright, New York. About ten years later Harry A. Prock’s Hapwood Farm in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania began importing purebred stock. Mr. Prock founded the American Belted Galloway Breeders Association July 1, 1951 along with H. Gordon Green of Quebec, Canada and Charles C. Wells of East Lansing, Michigan. Belted Galloways were exhibited by Mr. Prock at the Ohio State Fair in 1952.
A.H. Chatfield, Jr. of Rockport, Maine joined the Association as the fourth member on December 10, 1953. Two new members were added in 1956, Fred H. Johnson of Summitville, Ohio and Milton A. Horner of New Bern, North Carolina. The Association grew during the late 1950s when General James A. Van Fleet enrolled and began acquiring stock for his Withlacoochee Farm in Florida, later Sleepy Creek Farm in Virginia.
On January 11, 1964 the Association incorporated in Niota, Tennessee under the name Belted Galloway Society, Inc. The Society’s charter is preambled, “The object is to promote the Belted Galloway breed of cattle, to preserve the purity of the breed by maintaining pedigree records and data, to disseminate information relative to said breed of cattle and to carry on all legal and proper activities to effectuate the primary purpose of the corporation.”
Fred Johnson and General Van Fleet held the first public auction of Belted Galloways in America at Summitville, Ohio in 1967. Mr. Johnson no longer maintains a Belted Galloway herd, but is one of the world’s premier Angus breeders. The late A.H. Chatfield, Jr.’s Aldermere Farm in Maine continues to breed some of the finest Belted Galloways in the U.S. and is considered by many to be a major foundation herd for much of this country’s breed population. Though the Sleepy Creek herd was dispersed by General Van Fleet in the mid-1980s, the late H. Gordon Green’s Green Arpents herd in Quebec remains in existence, with Cheryl Johnstone Green continuing to supply quality animals to buyers in the United States and Canada.
Upon the death of the organization’s first secretary, Charles C. Wells, Meda McCord of Summitville, Ohio was elected Secretary/Treasurer. Meda’s efficiency and cheerful helpfulness were definite assets to the Society, and membership approached 150 nationwide by 1985 when she retired her post. Mary C. McClellan of Leeds, Alabama was elected to the Secretary’s position in 1986, and in the nine years of her tenure the Society’s member numbers and registered cattle population nearly quadrupled. Supportive committees developed which expanded services to members and prospective buyers to include newsletters, press releases, breed promotional events and auction sales.
There are active regional member groups in the United States, dedicated to fellowship and education as well as transmission of our enthusiasm for Belted Galloways to the public.
Membership in the Society is required in order to register or transfer Belted Galloways. Membership categories are: Life memberships, Regular memberships, Junior memberships, and Associate memberships (non-voting, mailings only). All new members receive a Breeders Handbook on disc. Contact the Executive Director for further information.
The term `registration’ is used when the animal is eligible to enter the Society’s Herd Book. Properly marked animals of either sex with purebred parentage are eligible, as are properly marked upbred females which are fifteen-sixteenths Belted Galloway.
`Properly marked’ is defined as black, dun or red with a continuous, uninterrupted white belt encircling the body and no extraneous white anywhere on the animal, except that females may be registered if they carry minor white on a foot below the level of the dewclaws.
The Society maintains an Appendix to the Herd Book where animals are `recorded.’ The Appendix holds purebred but mismarked females
as well as crossbred females that are recorded as one-half, three-quarters or seven-eighths. A registered, purebred Belted Galloway bull
is the required sire in all cases.
