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We’re off to the races….
Once again this year we were one of the sponsors of the Old Dominion Hunt’s point-to-point races. This time though we had something else on the menu besides food, drink and run. Thanks to great friends we raffled off some prizes to benefit the Wounded Warriors Project. Wooz and I and Church and Barbara are pleased to report we raised $3,534 for this good cause. We particularly want to thank the owners of the Black Horse Inn, who contributed a stay at their fine inn. The other prizes were a massage from Renata Shields of Orlean, spice packages from Tolsons Appliance Center and, of course, meat from Thistle Hill. Among the guests…
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Just because…
…we like to look at pictures of cows, particularly our alumni…..or should it be alumnae? Ann Merryman, who has a beautiful farm near Sparks, Maryland, just sent us a picture of two heifers she purchased from Thistle Hill last fall. As we expected, they’ve thrived under Ann’s care and appear to be in perfect body condition for breeding. Both heifers are daughters of Rotokawa 93 and their sister was retained here at Thistle Hill. Incidentally, we knew that Ann had been a horse trainer of note, but not until more recently had we discovered she had trained the horses in one of our favorite movies, “Seabiscuit”.
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Schadenfreude – Part 2
It’s been a bad week for the “better eating through chemistry” folks. The first animals approved for human consumption are not going to make it to your table…at least not yet. So-called”Enviro-pigs”, cloned in Canada, have not worked out after more than 10 years of experimenting. Scientists have lost their subsidies and so it’s back to the drawing board. http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-04/thats-all-folks-genetically-engineered-efficiently-pooping-pigs Some day we’ll get so educated we’ll discover that raising animals the natural way avoids all the unpleasant side-effects; such as manure lagoons and E.coli. Earlier this week we reported that techno-beef, A.K.A. “Pink Slime”, was being pulled from supermarket shelves because of a consumer revolt. There’s hope for us…
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The good guys win one…
Normally I try to be charitable and not rejoice over another’s misfortune, BUT….that doesn’t mean a little “schadenfreude” isn’t appropriate. Some time back we told you about the special meat scientists had developed that compresses all kinds of noxious stuff and then is sprayed with ammonia so you don’t get sick and maybe die. Other scientists who have investigated the stuff calls it “pink slime” but nevertheless the government is buying millions of pounds of it for school cafeterias and will serve it under the label “hamburger”. You can read the earlier post by scrolling down to “Another helping of slime, kids?” on March 7th. But the words got out…
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Off to summer camp….
….that’s what Wooz tells our yearling heifers reassuringly as we load them on the trailer for the short trip to a neighbor’s farm. Lindsay Sagstuen and John Dibble have generously shared their grass with us for several years now. Of course, we think Ruby Red lawn mowers look a lot better than John Deere green. And now that their neighbors, Don and Sue Ferro, have also granted us “grazing rights” we can add a few more heifers to this “loan-a-cow program” and get more effective use of the grass. A side benefit we have found is that both couples love the animals so much that not only do they thrive but, with…
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Dinner with Sylvie….
We finally had our long-anticipated dinner last night at the Inn at Mt. Vernon Farm near Sperryville featuring local celebrity-chef Sylvie Rowand. We can only say “wow”. As the local chief of the Daube Police, I can report that she does indeed know what she’s doing. Of course, it is a distinct advantage if you’re French and it may taste better if you’re French, too. Sylvie makes her Daube with lamb instead of beef (which is authorized) and she also substituted bacon for salt pork as a base. That would have the approval of famed British chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. And it took advantage of the pork raised at Mt. Vernon. All…
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Mob grazing…the soil report
It was a year ago that we began our experiment with mob grazing at Thistle Hill. And here, agricultural land consultants Charlie Thornton (foreground) and Tim Woodward of Tellus Consulting help us consider the results. Tellus did a complete mineral analysis of seven of our pastures using Brookfield Labs in Ohio. We tested three of our mob grazing pastures against others that were used in the usual way. Mob grazing puts more pounds of beef on a very limited area and moves the animals off quickly to the next small area. The belief is that this “pressure” will result in more fertile soil, more organic matter because of the trampling effect,…
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Giving docility a good name….
As we’ve noted before, visitors to Thistle Hill almost always comment on two things about our cows: first, how healthy they look (and are), and then how well-behaved. Devon are naturally docile but our care does seem to make Thistle Hill cows and bulls especially easy to handle. It’s an advantage in many ways, including the tenderness and taste of the meat. It also helps when show animals to a potential buyer that you can walk right into the center of the herd…no one runs to a far corner of the pasture. But the big advantage, particularly when you reach our delicate age, is the ability to work with them without…
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Morning chores…
It’s the twice-a-day routine. Pokey sets out with Wooz to feed the pigs and check on the heifers. (They share a pasture) (I mean the pigs and heifers; not Wooz and Pokey.) We’ve not had a dog, certainly not a puppy, who is content simply trotting alongside, watching what needs to be done. She won’t be distracted by our older dog racing off to investigate something or even a nearby cat or squirrel. Yesterday we strung a lot of electric wire to begin mob grazing. There was a cold wind, and a lot of walking for a little dog, but she gamely trotted along for about an hour. And that…
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Cashtiller does it again….
…was the heading on the email we received recently from an English friend, Gavin Hunter. Once again his magnificent cow Cashtiller has sired a bull that won top price at the national Devon show. That’s three straight bull calves and Gavin, throwing caution to the wind, had actually named this bull Hat Trick. Sports fans know that three-in-a-row is called a “hat trick. We actually saw Hat Trick two years ago as a youngster, still at Cashtiller’s side, when we visited Tilbrook Grange on a Devon tour. But we only had eye’s for the famous Cashtiller and quickly arranged with Gavin to flush her and import embryos to the States. Those calves…