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The Thistle Hill Alumni club…
…posted by Brooke Henley on Facebook today. Brooke says she watched the calving from her window while enjoying her morning coffee. The sire is Thistle Hill Equinox…with seven bull calves and four heifers so far this year. Two to go. Our relationship with Brooke and husband Tom and their Spring Pastures farm in Maryland goes back many years. They’ve built their herd around Thistle Hill genetics. Equinox is the son of our THF Churchill and the grandson of perhaps the finest cow in modern Devon history, Tilbrook Cashtiller. Not only did she win best of show every time she entered but her bull calves topped the English sales three consecutive…
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Breakfast at Thistle Hill…
…and Churchill qualifies as an “eager eater”! He’s also the senior bull in our herd…still active in his 10th year. Churchill is descended from the great Tilbrook Cashtiller who along with Cutcombe Jaunty were the first building blocks of our traditional pure English Devon herd. And here’s another good-looking herdmate, Essington, from Brian Drake’s former Essington Park herd. Essington has been used on the bulk of our herd for two years now and we think his calf crop this year may well be Thistle Hill’s finest ever. If you’ve been wanting to introduce something special into your herd, we suggest you contact Church to inspect Essington’s progeny…male and female! David
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Neither rain, nor snow…
…not dark of night…can upset the timetable for embryo transplants once the clock is running. So under miserable cold and wet and muddy conditions, Veterinarian Tom Massey and grandson Church managed to successfully cut out and bring in eight cows that had been prepped. Eventually embryos went in six by bulls including Lakota’s P60 and Rotokawa 663 and 93. We’ll now turn in our English bull Essington from Brian Drake’s old herd…and our own Churchill…to finish the job. Sometimes I feel our slogan should be: What’s Old is New Again. David
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Parade of bulls…
…features a relative newcomer who is pure traditional English on both sides. He’s F65; one month past his first birthday. F65’s dam is Essington Buttercup, from one of England’s oldest and finest Devon herds…one that sadly was dispersed a few years ago with the retirement of owner Brian Drake. The sire was our major herd bull Thistle Hill Churchill. He in turn is the son of Tilbrook Cashtiller…the award “winningest” Devon cow in recent English history. In fact four of her sons topped successive sales and our Churchill is their half brother. F65 has quite a lot to live up to! David
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Lord of the manor…
TDA Churchill was the first bull we developed in our pure English Devon project and we now have about a dozen of his progeny in our herd. Churchill’s dam was the best Devon cow we ever saw. She was national grand champion three years running until her breeder, Gavin Hunter of Tilbrook Grange, took pity on other English breeders and stopped showing her. Just as impressive…for four straight years her sons (Churchill’s brothers) topped the national Devon show auctions. We’ll always be grateful that Gavin shared Cashtiller with Thistle Hill. Cashtiller grandsons and granddaughters are available for inspection at our Farm. David
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Red Rubies….
…that’s what our British colleagues call them…often leaving off the “Devon”. Our most recent pure English arrival reminded us again of the beautiful deep ruby red color of the traditional Devon. We use different tags for our English herd though I’m not sure why. Hide color identifies the English animals long before you’re close enough to read the tags. We began the English acquisitions initially to strengthen our Rotokawa-Lenoir Creek-Lakota genetics. Developing an entirely traditional Devon herd came later. This is what we were looking for: a descendant of the champion English cow Tilbrook Cashtiller. The American side of the pedigree is all Rotokawa/Lakota. Clearly that deep ruby red color…
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The proof is in….
….the progeny! Traditional Devon™ Churchill continues to turn out splendid calves both here at Thistle Hill and at Bill and Nancy Walker’s Century Farms at Anderson, South Carolina….where this young lady is pictured. Churchill was the very first embryo calf we imported six years ago and he’s had trial runs now at both farms. Today he is pastured at Thistle Hill, making friends with the girls in our main herd.
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A first time for everything….
….Traditional Devon’s™ Churchill presented us with a new problem the other day. He had been dehorned several years ago but for some reason the “stump” had splintered and we found him in the pasture this way…an ugly sight but he didn’t seem particularly disturbed. We first thought one of two younger bulls had gotten into a “head-to-head” with him, testing his strength. But they seemed properly differential. It was also possible he had been scratching his head on a tree, and broke what was left of his horn. In any event, the wound was too serious to leave untreated. So veterinarian Monica O’Brien clipped off the broken ends and then cauterized…
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Lord of the manor….
….THF Jackpot, (below) winding up this year’s tour of duty. His calves from last fall are far enough along now that we can safely say they’re the best we’ve seen so far. It’s almost as though he was saying “don’t forget about me” in response to all the attention we’ve showered on the English bull, TDA Churchill. Jackpot was sired by Rotokawa 243. It’s going to be fun watching the competition play out! (Picture by Church Matthews)
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But can TDA Churchill “stamp” his progeny….
….it would appear so. TDA™ Churchill 01….son of the great English champion Cashtiller….has now been used selectively on a few cows in our herd. Here’s the result. The dam is THF Wonderful W64 . Traditional Devon™ was formed to import pure English genetics into the American herd….to provide a choice for a breed that was maneuvering itself into a corner. Churchill is breeding “true”….right down to what is an authentic “ruby red” coat.
