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The cycle begins again….
….with our first calf of the season….a Traditional Devon™ bull calf, TDA 20. He’s an adventuresome fellow. Here, just a half day old, and he’s returning from a jaunt about 500 yards from his mother. She waited by our Gator as he sauntered back across the field. The dam is TDA Cashtiller 2, daughter of Tilbrook Cashtiller… a producer of great bulls in England. I need grandson Church to help with the tagging now. He uses his track skills from Denison University to catch them in the open field. Try that in a 10-acre paddock sometime! To complete the pedigree: the sire is the son of Essington Buttercup and Ashott…
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Letters, we get letters (cont’d)….
….and often the unexpected. Recently we posted an item about one of our English heifers, Essington Park Buttercup. Within hours we heard from a breeder in England we haven’t met—Martyn Heard—who farms near Exeter in Devon. Martyn told us he had purchased Buttercup’s dam in the Essington Park dispersal sale and he wondered about the identity of Buttercup’s sire. Well first, thanks for reading and thanks for writing. If you have a chance, tell us more about how you’re doing with your new cows. We AI-ed your cow at Bovine Genetics near Bishops Itchington to Ashott Barton’s Millennium Falcon. He was bred by Shiamala Comer, still an excellent source for…
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Under the radar….
….we’ve been paying a lot of attention to the English Devon here on our own pasture, but a photo from Georgia reminds us we have the start of another line developing there. She’s Essington Park Buttercup….and she’s under the tender care of Doyle Unruh who handles our recips. (click to see her nose and rump) Brian Drake’s Essington Park herd has been dispersed now but for years it was one of England’s leading Devon farms. TDA Buttercup will be carrying on the tradition here in the States, as we intended when we began this project four years ago. We wanted to be sure not to lose the best, traditional Devon…
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OK….time for a Devon picture….
….a Devon….pure traditional Devon English heifer….but not in Devon….in Georgia. One of our Traditional American Devon calves from earlier this year. She’s four months old now….the daughter of Essington Park Buttercup and Ashott Barton Millennium Falcon. She’s an embryo calf, of course, being raised at Doyle Unruh’s farm along with five of her brothers and sisters. Mom is getting up in years but she still topped a sale in England recently. Essington Park sadly is no more because of the retirement of breeder and good friend Brian Drake.
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A Traditional Devon update….
….just back from a trip to South Carolina and Georgia, looking at the latest British imports. This heifer is two weeks old, a product of Essington’s Buttercup and our herd bull, Millennium Falcon. Essington has been closed down now so we’re fortunate to have saved genetics from that grand old herd developed by Brian Drake. She and five sisters and brothers will be raised at Doyle Unruh’s farm in Georgia and will play an important role in our project to save British Devon genetics here in America. For this one, you’ll have to click on the picture. Some of our older British animals were gracing the pastures of our partners Bill…