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Parade of (baby) bulls…
…features three of the yearling bulls we’re holding back to see how they develop. The first is the final pairing Wooz selected on her last trip to England. His dam comes from the famous Tulip line. The breeder resisted collecting her and after some to and fro, we bought her outright! Then we had to figure out the complexities of owning a single cow…both physically and legally. We are greatly indebted to Tilbrook’s Gavin Hunter for providing the umbrella and eventually the transport to the clinic where Tulip was flushed to Cutcombe Jaunty. Gavin also arranged a permanent home for Mom. Too bad we couldn’t have arranged a Thistle Hill…
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Parade of bulls…G101…
…is a pure traditional English calf just 10 months old. Again note the deep ruby red coat..a distinguishing feature of a pure Devon. G101 is a grandson of Ashott Barton Millenium Falcon who we spotted in Cornwall and is the bull that got us started in importing English genetics. His dam is TDA 4…a cow that has produced for us consistently. She was a daughter of the famed English cow Tilbrook Cashtiller, who won three grand championships before retiring undefeated. Cashtiller and Falcon are found throughout our herd now and we’re indebted to our English partners Gavin Hunter and Shiamala Comer for sharing their genetics with us. Sadly many English…
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Introducing TDA 35….
It was 10 years ago that I walked out in a pasture Cornwall, England with a grizzled old farmer named Ivan Rowe. Ivan was introducing me to the best herd of cows I had ever seen! More than that he was offering me my pick to breed…flush the embryos…and ship back to the States. It took at least an hour to walk through the herd but it wasn’t a difficult choice. I spotted my candidate almost immediately and said “how about that one”? “Well you did choose the best,” Ivan grumped. And from that point on he’s always called me “mate”…the highest honor I’ve ever received. Ivan is a lifelong…
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The next generation…
…and a picture of the result of mating our oldest American cow with a young British bull. The dam is 17 years old and still producing. But Church has decided it’s time to work in her replacement. This 16-month old heifer will be filling some mighty big hooves. Mom produced a string of outstanding bull calves. So it was an easy decision to set aside F212 for the main herd. The sire is Traditional Devon Highwayman…descended from the finest bull I ever saw in England…Ashott Barton Millennium. So we feel we’ve bred the best of both worlds…English and American! David
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Hanging out with the guys…
…three of our bulls doing their own version of intensive grazing. On the left Guardian, a Rotokawa-bred animal, and then two of our English bulls, Essington and Highwayman. The last two are both sired by the great Ashott-Barton bull, Millenium Falcon. My guess is they’re all favoring the grass right there because an underground stream is just beneath. David
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Bribery update…
A few years ago, on an introductory trip to meet our partners in England, Church was given a wonderful gift by his grandmother: the right to select any heifer he wanted from the Ashott-Barton herd. The young cow he selected—-without any prompting from me—was from the Bribery line which I had long coveted. Because of import restrictions against live animals, we bred the heifer in England and shipped the frozen embryos to Thistle Hill. Five months later, here’s the result:
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Let the real test begin…
…in the final analysis it’s not the bull…nor the pedigree…but the calves. Cutcombe represents one of the first second generation all English animals born in America. Sired by Ashott Barton Millennium falcon and out of TDA 4. We hope to see his deep ruby red coat show up in his upcoming calves. And Cutcombe’s first calves are due any day now.
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Traditional Devon update….
…..the principals of Traditional Devon™ got together this past week to review progress…and here’s an example: TDA 23. She’s an Essington Park Buttercup embryo daughter by Ashott Barton Millennium Falcon. She’s just five months old but this is what we’ve been working for. English breeders Brian Drake (who provided the dam) and Shiamala Comer (who provided the bull) deserve the the credit. But we think the picture demonstates another thing: the importance of the recip. Awhile back we decided that we were going to select our very best cows to serve as recipients. In our opinion that is just about as important as the genetics. Incidentally, veteran cattlemen Jerry and Jeremy Engh of…
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Thistle Hill East….
….a clinic near Oxford, England where one of our heifers has just completed flushing. Fifteen embryos will soon be on their way to Virginia. She’s descended from the famed Champson Bribery by way of Ashott Barton Farm near Exford. Her breeder was Shiamala Comer, one of our original Traditional Devon™ associates. Sadly, “Shi” has now liquidated her herd as have two of our other Traditional Devon friends. It does, however, validate our decision to acquire the best English Devon genetics before they disappear.
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Recharging our batteries – 2
….after a brief detour to the Cotswolds to stay in one of our favorite inns—Russells in Broadway—we plunged into the heart of Devon country. This is famed Exmoor, in legend at least the birthplace of Devon. The moor is both beautiful and forbidding but nearby are some of the finest Devon farms in the world. And there is none finer than Ashott Barton, one of our partners’ properties just outside Exford. There, Shiamala Comer and her son, Jeremy, have an outstanding herd of truly traditional Devon. Not only her colleagues agree with her, but Shiamala’s devotion to detail—and the results she has achieved—can’t be denied. It was she who bred Millennium Falcon,…