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You can go home again…
….at least if you’re Thistle Hill’s Q25. She was born on this same pasture seven years ago…sold to John and Teri Guevremont’s Reality Farm of nearby Sperryville, Virginia three years ago…and now returned here for mating with one of our bulls. Q25 is one cow we should have never let get away. With the superb Rotokawa 667 on both sides of her pedigree, we sold her with an outstanding bull calf that John and Teri are now using on their grass-based Angus herd. Hopefully, we’ll be able to arrange for his temporary return as well. It’s a line we’d like to re-establish here. Reality Farm is our preferred source for…
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Jumping the gun….
…that’s what the smart folks did at Thistle Hill’s recent Open House. Advertised for Sunday, we had our first visitors on Friday. Here, Wooz talks about our breeding program with Dr. Bill Walker of South Carolina, Jim Varnados of Louisiana and Regina Tesnow of Tennessee. Before the weekend was over, Regina was to sell a bull she had purchased several years ago to Jim and Ronnie Bardwell and then buy a new Thistle Hill bull. Our heifers were a particular hit, the deep ruby red hides are a Thistle Hill trademark and Linda Hendrix and her son, Dr. John Hendrix, would quickly snap up five of our best. The females will stay…
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The developing grass fed beef market (Part 2)….
Bill Roberts’ dissent from the old bromide perception is reality reminded me of another: “Each man is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts”. It’s generally attributed to the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan but goes back a lot farther than that. And while we have some serious concerns over Bill’s article (see Part1 just below), we accept his basic fact: to meet the requirements of the commercial meat trade a steer must have a hanging weight of at least 600 pounds and that requires a live weight of more than 1,000 pounds. That’s Bill’s major concentration right now….putting together trailer-loads of grass steers…to be sent to processors. To…
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The developing grass fed beef market….
There is no one in this business of grass fed beef whose opinions I value more than Bill Roberts of 12 Stones Grasslands Beef. Bill has not only an education in the field but years of experience in all levels of raising and marketing cattle. While a staunch advocate for natural food he has also been a critic of some of the fads and, let’s face it, the nutty theories of some of the well-known grass gurus. A recent article got us thinking…and worrying just a bit. And while I don’t disagree with his facts, I’m not sure I want to follow where they’re leading. So let the discussion begin! …
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A gamble pays off….
The smile stayed on Dr. Monica O’Brien’s face all afternoon, despite the heat. We were checking pregnancies, and again and again she reported: “Three months!” That was particularly gratifying since we had gambled this year, selling our herd bull Watson and banking on his son, 2-year old U2 or Double Trouble. Because of the uncertainty of putting a young bull with 24 grown cows, we kept him in an extra month. But it wasn’t necessary. He settled 75% of his charges in the first 22 days. All but two in the next month for a total of 94%. All in all, a performance that earned Double Trouble bragging rights with…
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You gotta love her….
Wooz and I spent an enjoyable few hours with son, Church, today photographing much of our herd. We wanted new photos to “freshen” the website. We also wanted to grade our younger cows…such as X64 here with her mom. 64 seems to turn out “A’s” year in and year out and her calves are always among the first to be singled out by potential buyers. We, in turn, make sure that we always keep two 64 females in our herd for protection. In the main pasture right in front of the house is part of that “protection”, U64. She’s the granddaughter of one great Rotokawa bull, 974, and just bred to…
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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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On our home page….
We wanted to alert those who skip our Home Page and come direct to this blog that we’ve posted some pictures of our 688 line-bred calves there. We’re not entirely convinced that breeding a sire (even one as good as Rotokawa 688) to his daughter is a good idea. But in these matters, at least, we think it’s a good idea to try something for ourselves before making a decision. So far, the results have been excellent. Of the 10 embryos implanted, we got seven calves…two males and five females. One of the bull calves died at about six months and, while we think it was the shock of a…
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What we do at Thistle Hill…..
….is help people create quality Devon herds. And this two-month old heifer, at Tomina Farms in Kentucky, is an example. She’s by a bull we sold Regina and Tom Tesnow just over a year ago and we get frequent updates. They’re not only happy with the results but with the bull’s temperament and role in their pasture; so happy that they’re thinking of collecting semen from him. Best, of course, is to create your own bull on your own pasture but that takes a little skill and a lot of patience and luck. The greatest impact ever on our herd took place about four years ago when we spotted and bought…
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Sticking to the plan…
Once you start the process of embryo transplants or artificial insemination, you have to stay on schedule. And again this year, as it has for the past two, Nature decided to see just how serious we were about this business. The cows certainly kept to their schedule despite the snow; they went into heat early in the morning and now at the end of the day were ready for artificial insemination. Once again, Rose Hill Veterinary Clinic’s Jane Narrimore was in the chute. At least Jane could drive to work. Last year we had to load her boss, Dr. Tom Massey, into our tractor’s front loader with all his paraphernalia, and plow…