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Two little girls are we…
…on a foggy morning. Both are about 18 months out of American Devon dams…but their English sires have had an impact! The heifer on the left is out of my personal favorite…R2…an almost after-thought purchase and a cow that was a trouble free producer of great calves for 15 years. This will be her last calf. Her sire, now sold, was an English bull Wooz called Handsome Ransom. The other heifer, against the fence, has U2 in her background…as well as two English greats…Cutcombe Jaunty and Ashott Barton Millenium Falcon. As we’ve said before, we imported English genetics because pure traditional Devon are a disappearing breed in England and here. …
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A virtual hug…
…to three families who welcome Thistle Hill cows to their property. We couldn’t operate the way we do without them. Mary Schindling Perrine sent this view of her farm…our cows in the foreground…Cobbler Mountain at sunrise. Confederate raider John Mosby—the Gray Ghost—always made his getaways to Cobbler and the Union troops could never catch him. The Perrines…and the Ferro’s adjacent…provide us with 20 acres of pasture for our young heifers. We’re convinced that the tender and personal care of these two couples make our young ones even more gentle. Could I say our calves our “house broke”? Well, grandchild broke anyway. Just around the corner, the Rowland’s are keeping a…
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At the heart of our herd…
TDA7, daughter of the great Tilbrook Cashtiller who is still the finest cow of any breed we’ve ever seen! We flushed Cashtiller twice in England and nine years ago TDA7 was born here along with five sisters and two brothers. TDA7, like her mama, has aged gracefully…udders still as correct as a three-year-old. Our friend and veteran cattleman Bill Roberts spotted 7’s dam Cashtiller on a visit to Gavin Hunter’s Tillbrook farm near Cambridge, England, and his judgment was confirmed by pictures and then our first visit along with 50 other Devon breeders on the 2010 tour. It was then that we formed a friendship with Tillbrook’s Gavin Hunter and…
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The cost of doing business…
..Bayer, seeing the handwriting on the wall, has agreed to a ten-billion dollar out of court settlement to get rid of the lawsuits against its Roundup weed killer. Juries haven’t accepted the various company-friendly investigations that cleared Roundup (aka: glysophate) of any connection with the cancer deaths of its users. Ten-billion sounds like a lot but when allocated among potential claimants, its not very much. Not only that, Bayer is free to continue marketing Roundup without any cancer warning on the label. You can read the story by going to this website. David
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The Thistle Hill Alumni Club…
…and a recent graduate…Equinox. He’s a combination of our top English lines. Equinox is not quite two years old and at 900 pounds has a lot of growth yet to come. But he went right to work covering the herd at Spring Pastures farm in Maryland. The Equinox pedigree includes such top names as Falcon, Cashtiller, Buttercup…all the result of a ten year search we made through Devon country in their native England. That dark ruby red haircoat and the spotless muzzle are two guarantees of a pure traditional Devon! This is the second bull we sent to Spring Pastures Farm and owners Brooke Henley and Tom Garnett. Reddi was…
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What could possibly go wrong…
…China will protect us! The United States and China are wrapping up the agriculture portion of their trade talks and the two countries have agreed to open their markets to chickens. China has a history of dumping its contaminated food products here…well other things too, including toys. Our only protection is going to be an occasional audit…whatever that entails…after China’s chickens have already been shipped! Here’s the story: https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/12811-usda-confirms-approval-of-chinese-chicken?v=preview How will we know when we’re eating chicken from China? We won’t! David
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Our namesake…
…and a stubborn little plant! The Canadian Thistle dominated our pastures 20 years ago…along with Rosa multiflora. It’s taken a long time (and many grandchildren serving hard labor) to get both weeds to manageable proportions. We simply keep cutting them to ground level and eventually the plant gets the message and quits trying. The multiflora was an earlier brainchild of someone who wanted to duplicate European hedgerows on this property. While neither is considered edible, we’ve heard of people successfully training their cows to consume thistles. They simply spray the plants with fish oil, the cattle love it and eventually the fish oil isn’t necessary. David
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King David reigns…
…over the American part of our herd anyway. He is now in his third year and making stunning growth…300 pounds and 2.5 more inches scrotal growth…in recent months. King David is the result of crossing one of our pure English bulls with an American cow. The idea was to mate the best to the best…hoping in the process to reduce the size of our cows just a little. Obviously we’re pleased with the result. This fall will show us more about his impact on frame scores. Meanwhile he is one of several cows we’ve been leasing. Talk to Church about that: (214) 802-1283 David
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The danger of Super-Sizing…
It’s been some years now since Michael Pollin set the beef industry on its ear with his article in the New York Times expanded into the book The Omnivores Dilemna. Speaking in England…Pollin pulls back the curtain on the real story behind McDonalds French fries…or as they’re called over there…chips! David
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Caution…grass at work…
…it may look like resting and that’s what graziers call it…but this grass is hard at work! The trick in grazing isn’t how much grass the cows eat…but how much they leave. Ideally we like them to bite off about a third…and trample a third…and leave the rest for regrowth. That’s what’s happening here. The cows have left…we’ve topped off the weeds and seed heads…and now the roots which have died back to mirror the amount of leaf surface above ground…are regrouping. It’s that new growth which is most nutritious and the cows will be returned in 45 days for another pass across this pasture. Not only will there be…