Amberley Park Galloway Cattle History

                     The Swatchfield and Bukalong herds where sources of foundation Galloways for Amberley Park

Bukalong Duncan was a foundation sire, producing great female and carcass stock for many years.

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In the early days of the Galloway breed in Australia, the gene pool was very small, which prompted Mr Cock to be the first person to import cattle of any breed, from New Zealand, in 1968 and 1971. Semen was also imported from Scotland.

         The entire Fork Farm cow herd was imported from NZ into the Amberley Park herd in 1971.This was a huge boost to the      

          Galloway gene pool in Australia. I (MJC) travelled with the cattle from NZ to AP … 9 days on a small, flat bottom river 

          "boat" and the Galloways handled the trip a lot better than I did!

Amberley Park – Sunset & New Dawn

 57 years ago Hainsworth T Cock of Amberley Park first started breeding Galloways in 1962 on the banks of the Yarra River at Lower Plenty. Having studied a number of different breeds, Mr Cock determined that the Galloway breed had what it takes to efficiently produce an ideal carcass. Son, Malcolm Cock and wife Carol, has been managing the herd for the last forty or so years.

Over the years, Amberley Park has achieved much in the beef world, including: performance recording since 1965, numerous wins in grazing trials and carcass competitions, exporting genetics, selling cattle to all states of Australia, topping numerous sales, proving how well Galloways cross with other breeds, for example, the Blueroans, Buchan Blacks (X Angus) and even Brahmans.

“In the early days we used showing as a marketing tool with a lot of success, but for the last twenty seven years, we have concentrated on performance in the paddock and on the hook, as has the beef industry.”

‘An extensive AI and ET program was undertaken recent years with semen purchased following trips overseas to find suitable sires. Semen was also used dated back to the 1960’s. A considerable bank of Galloway genetics is now being used and stored to help keep diversity in the gene pool.’

This Galloway gene diversity has now been passed onto a number of existing studs and new breeders. Also most pleasing is that Hannah Cock (4th generation family breeding Amberley Park Galloways) is continuing the Amberley Park Galloway herd, be it being much smaller in number and now based at Tarcutta, New South Wales.

Malcolm will still be heavily involved in the Grazing Industry, Galloways, AGA and the Buchan Blacks (from now on called “Scottish Blacks”) and through his Farm Dynamics Consulting business.