For ages, the Galloway livestock were part of the landscape of South West Scotland. But there are fewer and fewer old herds. A story about love for cows, beef and nature.

The time came to think of buying cattle. I began to ask around, but it was inevitable that I should be drawn to those black beasts which had haunted my childhood. I made a beeline to the Galloway Cattle Society for advice on getting started.

That Society has a wealth of members across the world. The breed has been sidelined by progress and change in the last half-century, but many folk are still united by their love of good beef and handsome cattle. I went to one of their meetings and was knocked flat by the depth of devotion and knowledge in that small room. It was humbling to realise that I had no idea what I was doing. Somebody asked me why I wanted to invest in Galloway cattle, and I struggled to provide an answer that wasn’t lightweight or sentimental. We haven’t measured our wealth in cattle for centuries, but the keeping of cows is not a game. Think long and hard, young man. My wife laughed that I was ready for the bind of parenthood but baulked at the cold reality of buying cattle. In my defence, I’d never been asked to explain why I wanted a child.

I stood back and looked again at what I wanted. There’s a slim financial case for cattle in conservation. Some people make it work because they play the grants and apply for the right subsidies, but curlews don’t pay the bills off their own back. Our beasts would have to do much more than