The happy marriage…

…of two great English herds at Thistle Hill.  TDA 31 is an embryo heifer from Goldings Farm in Cornwall and Ashott Barton Farm in Somerset.

31 is Exhibit A in what we hoped to achieve with our pursuit of pure traditional English Devon genetics.  We would be hard-pressed to find some way to improve her.

The dam was Goldings Norah who we discovered in Ivan Rowe’s pastures at Lands End.  Ivan told told us to select any cow we wanted from his herd of more than 100 Devon.  He’d wait for us back at the house.

Wooz and I trudged back and forth in the rain all afternoon before settling on Norah for flushing.  When we got back, Ivan was sitting at the dining room table with only one pedigree in front of him.

It was Norah’s!

There was never any question who we’d use as the sire.  We had already discovered Ashott Barton’s Millennium Falcon and considered him the finest bull we’d ever seen.

Now the results of that pairing are on our pastures.  And TDA 31 is in calf…make that “in calves”…she’s expecting twins in September! 

David