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Addendum…..
….or should that be addenda? Addendae? Anyway, here’s more on managing heifers growing out of our Roundtable below. Both Bill Roberts and Juliet Cleave have posted comments along the way the past several days but I thought these two were worthy of special attention so I brought them up here. If you haven’t seen Juliet’s video, I hope you’ll do so now. Turn up the sound. http://youtu.be/S_kKoeRcmwM First, to re-introduce Juliet. She’s one of our partners in the Traditional Devon project in England. A native of Cornwall, living and raising Devon on land her family has farmed for well over 100 years. She has a spectacular herd and it was…
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Breeding heifers…and more…
The other day some of us got into a discussion, via email, about breeding heifers. But as these things go, we wandered off topic quite a bit. When I signed off, I realized that there might be some thought-starters in our ramblings for readers of this blog and so I have reproduced it here with the permission of the participants. Taking part were myself, and our two partners in Traditional Devon, Bill Walker and John Forelle, as well as two people whose counsel we frequently seek out: Bill Roberts of 12 Stones Grasslands Beef and Dr. Sue Beal, a holistic vet in Pennsylvania. The give-and-take began when I posted a video…
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Fourth time the charm?
Our English colleague, Gavin Hunter of Tilbrook Grange, has just sent along a picture of his next entrant in the annual Devon sale. He’s Tilbrook Jubilee, a 2-year old, whose dam was sired by Gavin’s wonderful Tilbrook Sunset. Dad is a Stonegrove bull. Gavin’s bulls have topped the sales three years running. The previous three years were all out of his great Tilbrook Cashtiller. Cashtiller wasn’t in the game this time. She had been busy at breeding time giving us 26 embryos for America. It’s right about there, where Jubilee is standing in the Tilbrook yard, that we first saw Cashtiller. Like a lovesick teenager, right? This must be the…
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Why can’t the English….
…learn to speak English? To quote Henry Higgins. If you’ve watched the video from Juliet Cleave of Kew Herd just below you may have been puzzled, as we were, by her statement that Devon eliminated poaching. We never consider our Devon fierce enough to discourage thieves so we wondered what Juliet was feeding hers’. Poaching has nothing to do with rustlers, she explained. Or with hunters shooting at her herd. Poaching is a term used in Cornwall to describe the damage cows do to muddy ground. And if you haven’t watched Juliet’s video, we urge you to watch now. It’s a real treat.
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It’s show time!
One of our English friends, a partner in the Traditional Devon project, has just produced a YouTube video that we think is wonderful. Juliet Cleave, of Kew Herd in Cornwall, comes from a long line of Devon breeders, and in her video she combines great archival pictures with her current herd. Make sure your sound is up: http://youtu.be/S_kKoeRcmwM
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Getting to know you….
….our friend and partner in the English Devon project, John Forelle, stopped by and renewed acquaintances with TDA Churchill. He’s a year old now (the bull, not John) and even more than most of our herd likes to come up and check out visitors. John’s home is Folly Farm at Pine Plains, New York and he was racing to beat the snow storm that covered that area overnight.
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The pay-off….
….regular readers know that we’ve made repeated trips to southwest England in recent years and, with two American partners, have selected outstanding pure, traditional English bulls and cows…collected embryos from the matings….and imported them to the United States. And here’s the result: a three-month old bull calf out of Goldings Norah by Millennium Falcon. We just saw him recently at the farm in Georgia where he was calved and we couldn’t be more pleased. Doubly pleased. There on the same pasture was his brother, another Falcon sired bull calf out of a cow from another great, historic British herd, Essington Park. These two, with a third British bull that calved here…
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Praise from across the pond….
…our English friend and partner, Angus Cottey, saw the picture of Thistle Hill Magic on our home page and wrote a glowing appraisal. We’re immodest enough to share it. Angus knows cows and a compliment for an American bull from the Brits is no small thing. He writes: “Magic looks a tremendous Bull, I recall your photo of him as a young calf. He certainly has grown on well. I particularly like his top line and how flat he is across the top. A good beef animal should not be pointed across the shoulders but broad and flat. They say snow should be able to settle, certainly not like a…
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This just in….
….with apologies for the picture quality, we still think you can determine the quality of the subjects. These are the next two truly pure and traditional English Devon imported by Thistle Hill farm in partnership with two other breeders. Actually, embryos were imported and then implanted in American cows, who carried them to term. These calves are now two months old, both sired by Ashott Barton Millennium Falcon in Devon, England. This has been a labor of love for John and Patricia Forelle of New York, Nancy and Bill Walker of South Carolina and ourselves for several years. Our intention is not only to make a major impact on the American Devon…
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Why even take a vacation?
That’s a question I ask myself a lot. Thistle Hill, Wooz’ family property going back to World War II, could easily be a mountain resort. This is the view at the main driveway entrance and we hope you’ll turn in the Sunday of the up-coming American Devon Cattle Association meeting. Keep to the left, come up to the house, grab a plate (we’ll even have some of our Tamworth pork sausage for as long as it lasts) and then wander out to the pens and check out our animals. Some young English Devon will be there…and if you cross the road you can see our brand new traditional pure English…