All of us can get focused on our preconceptions as representative of the whole, and since Scotland has some serious personality and history behind it, that country has generated its fair share of stereotypes. That’s applicable to geography, history, personality and the like. Think of how quickly our mental picture encapsulates our preconceived ideas of all things Scotland, and its amazing exports.
Entertainers and actors like Sean Connery, Gerard Butler, Rose Leslie, Ewan McGregor, Robbie Coltrane, Brian Cox, Craig Ferguson, Alan Cumming, Karen Gillian and Billy Connolly. Musicians and music, like Ian Anderson, Big Country, the Bay City Rollers, The Average White Band, David Byrne, Nazareth, Gerry Rafferty, Bonn Scott, AC/DC’s Young brothers and Simple Minds, to name a limited few.
Poets and authors like Robbie Burns, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, J.M Barrie, Kenneth Grahame, Walter Scott, and Alistair MacLean. And of course, Adam Smith.
There are movies and movie visuals, like Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express journey over the Glenfinnan Viaduct. Mel Gibson’s William Wallace, a blue-faced cry of “Freedom!” and the muddy, bloody fields near Stirling. Brave, with flaming hair and (not quite flaming) arrows, but feistiness galore all the same. Rob Roy, with Liam Neeson at his best, before everyone started getting kidnapped. One of our personal pop culture movie favorites, The Highlander, with Sean Connery as co-lead and Queen’s soundtrack blazing behind the majesty and mud of the Highlands in the 16th century. James Bond, as long as we’re talking about Mr. Connery. And, of course, 14,673 versions of Macbeth and Mary Queen of Scots.
Our view of Scotland and agricultural exports are no different. There’s the Angus, the Angus and the Angus. While that might be a breed that has dominated the U.S. beef industry for a really good reason, there are more agricultural exports than that out of Scotland, and we’re here to bring you one of them. And it’s not the terribly cute and hairy one that first comes to mind.
Join us, for Martha Neale of Windmist Farm in Jamestown, Rhode Island, where she talks about why she enjoys raising the Scottish Belted Galloway cattle. Whether you call them “Belties,” “Panda Cow,” or the terribly appropriate “Oreo Cow,” they are a fine addition to the Scottish exports we have come to know and love.
Links:
https://www.jamestowncommunityfarm.com/windmist-farm/
http://afs.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/beltedgalloway/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scottish_breeds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age
http://www.angus.org/
https://www.americancowboy.com/ranch-life-archive/top-5-beef-cattle-breeds-24440
https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/400/400-803/400-803.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claiborne_Pell_Newport_Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Scotland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scottish_musicians
https://www.ranker.com/l