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Ladies in Beef….
….is an organization in England which promotes beef consumption…and our very own Juliet Cleave is right in the center of things (as usual). Right now they’re doing a television campaign plugging roasts as an easy mid-week meal. What could be better than a roast in the crockpot….toss in whatever you find in the refrigerator and bins and…voila!
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Made in the USA….
….Traditional Devon America™ reached another milestone with the birth of this little bull calf. TDA is a partnership of three American breeders focused on importing traditional English Red Devon genetics to the United States. The dam of this calf….one of the first English embryos conceived at a clinic in Oxford and the daughter of two British Devon champions….was Tilbrook Castiller. Cashtiller was particularly note-worthy for the great bulls she produced. The AI sire of this little guy was Ashott Barton Millennium Falcon, but we’ll do him a favor and call him Falcon, for short. He’s just over 12 hours old in these photos but we’re hopeful. We calve our heifers…
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Look up chutzpah….
….and you’ll find the Monsanto logo. The evil genius of this gigantic corporation is demonstrated anew with its campaign to co-opt the National Honeybee Day. Bees, like butterflies, have rapidly been disappearing from the planet…a critical threat to growers around the world. As reported by Dr. Joseph Mercola, Monsanto moved in (as it has into the White House) to claim it wanted nothing more than to save the bees. Turns out Monsanto has as much clout with the British ag department, DEFRA, as it has with our own USDA. It’s clear that they have corrupted the entire regulatory process with the enthusiastic cooperation of universities and government bureaucrats. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/09/02/save-bees-against-monsanto.aspx
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What we did on our summer vacation….
….visited Devon farms, of course. And there’s none prettier than John and Patsy Forelle’s “Folly Farm” near Pine Planes, New York. You may remember it as the scene of the glamorous closing banquet of the then-new North American Devon Association. John and I served on the NADA board for several years before finally deciding we could do more for Devon by concentrating on our own herds, and Traditional Devon America, a joint project importing pure English Devon genetics to this country. John has now sold his herd but retains three heifers, sired by the TDA herd bull, Cutcombe Jaunty. And those heifers are now calving. This…
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Testing….one…two…three…
….testing. We have bred three of our Traditional Devon™ America English bulls to American cows now….part of developing a track record on our imported genetics. Here are two by either TDA Churchill or TDA Wellington….we’re not sure which…the DNA people aren’t even sure. We hadn’t anticipated that problem dealing with flush mates. But we’re sure the lab will finally figure it out. One thing we notice in the bull calf at the left….he brings nice thickness all the way forward. American cows are notorious for weak shoulders. It will take a lot more calves to be sure but hopefully English genetics can help our American herds in several respects.
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Running in more posh circles….
….our English colleague, Gavin Hunter, is congratulated by HRH Camilla at the Royal Show in Devon. Gavin’s newest young bull took second place at both the Devon and the Bath and West shows….and his Tilbrook Thomas finished first at Bath. Gavin tells us plans are being completed for the next world Devon tour in England in June, 2016. Apparently Camilla invited Gavin and 50 of his closest friends to drop by Highgrove during the tour.
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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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Another milestone….
…another successful experiment. We decided to try our English traditional Devon bulls on a few of our heifers…here at Thistle Hill and in South Carolina. And yesterday afternoon, without any warning, came the result: a heifer calf by a fairly small heifer. Delivered without problem. The problem is we’re not sure which bull is the sire: Churchill or Wellington. Both were with her right at the conception date. We’ll let DNA sort that out. Meanwhile, Mom was busy holding court all afternoon….introducing the curiosity to the other heifers who are waiting their turn. We liked that the dark ruby red coloring of the English animals prevailed. This was a thoroughly photographed…
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Still sold out but….
….here’s one of our pure English bulls: TDA Ransom. Our partners, Bill and Nancy Walker, have been raising him in South Carolina. But it’s time to bring him up to Thistle Hill. He also has a full younger brother…same flush but implanted a year later…in Georgia and he’ll soon be here, too. Ransom is out of Goldings Snowdrop in Cornwall…we saw his mother on our last trip…by Ashott Barton Millennium Falcon. (Saw him too!)
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The Pied Piper of Cornwall….
Juliet Cleave leads her heifers (there were 10 in trail) to the camera. All of our English colleagues seem to have wonderful addresses: Lower Trewigget, St. Teath, Bodmin