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The butcher’s breed…
…was the name the English gave to the Devon. That was because of the quality of Devon meat. It was about that time that the leading English agriculturalist Robert Bakewell pronounced Devon the perfect cow…in no further need of refinement by crossing with other breeds. At Thistle Hill we have devoted our time and resources duplicating that early English Devon…and by coincidence the other day some of cows lined up demonstrating what we are trying to achieve. I guess the larger one in the center helps demonstrate the uniformity of the rest of the herd. She’s part Senepol bred to a Devon bull, an experiment we tried to demonstrate the…
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The family that works cattle together…
…well gets dirty together if nothing else. Pregnancy checking is a kind of tense moment in the year. Not only do you hope for a high rate of pregnancy…but for matings you’ve invested in embryo transplants and artificial insemination. This year we’re checking a total of 32 cows…a mix of regular Devon plus our pure traditional English Devon. The wranglers are grandson Church, his Dad Curt and his uncle Church. First mamas and calves are called in and then sorted in separate pens. The young will get permanent tags and tattoos and vaccinations. Some of the bulls that don’t meet Thistle Hill standards are also converted to steers. At the…
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The three latest…
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The latest arrival…
…a combination of an English bull with the best of our American herd. Dam THF U3 and sire from the wonderful old Essington herd in England. Wooz and I were just getting started in Devon and visiting Lakota Ranch when I saw the grandmother of this little guy being born! I asked for her on the spot and Jeremy Engh promised eventual delivery! She turned into the prettiest American cow I’d ever seen…and Jeremy took grief from his Dad when he later came upon her on a visit to Thistle Hill. We eventually bred grandma to Watson…a descendant of the Rotokawa line. And the progeny have been equally beautiful. Cows…
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Here they come…
…our first calf of the season is a pure traditional English Devon…THF 1. He’s an 80-pound baby bull. The mom is from our great Cashtiller line…the cow that won three straight national championships over there. The sire is a mystery though. The calf may be the result of an AI with Champson Defender or the cover bull who was put in a few days afterwards. This birth comes right at the dividing line between the two. The size of the calf makes us think Defender will turn out to be the dad. An 80-pound preemie doesn’t seem likely but we’ll just have to wait for the DNA results. David
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End of an era…
…with the auction of the Goldings herd in Cornwall, England. Ivan Rowe, our partner in securing the fine English genetics, passed away last fall and this past weekend his incredible animals were auctioned. Back in 2010, Ivan gave us the pick of his herd…to breed and flush. The cow I selected was Norah 21 and Ivan smiled when I made my choice. He had already pulled her pedigree out from his herd book and it was laying there alone on the dining room table when we went inside. Norah comes from a long line of champions…more than 40 when we stopped counting. Her background includes sires from both the historic…
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Call me Brexit?
Just a thought after all the hoops we had to jump through to get this little girl and her sister out of England. We spotted her granddam years ago but her owner—-Shiamala Comer—-didn’t like the wear and tear flushing eggs put on a cow. Fast forward 10 years and Wooz finally convinced Shiamala to sell us a Bribery heifer. That she was to be a gift to grandson Church and that this would be Wooz’ last trip to England secured the deal. Still we had to wade through a ton of export paperwork while we waited for our heifer to grow up. Finally we flushed her to one of our…
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Chip off the old block…
…D168 is just four…a lovely blend of English and American genetics. Dad is our English Highwayman from the Ashott Barton and Cutcombe lines. Again we’re pleased to see the deep ruby red coloring of the English Devon passed on to the next generation. The female side is thanks to the Lenoir Creek and Lakota herds. Coincidentally, we just sold the 14-year old dam of this young cow. One of the things we like to emphasize at Thistle Hill is longevity. A 14-year old is by no means our oldest. Just the other day a 19-year old quietly went to sleep and didn’t wake up. She had been a wonderful stress-free…
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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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Meeting of the braintrust…