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It may not be Shakespeare but….
….our Cornwall society correspondent sends us news of two young lovers, Rupert and Clare. Seriously, this simple news article (thanks to Juliet Cleave) shows exactly why we love southwest England. It’s more than the cows. It’s the people….the people we once were. http://www.fwi.co.uk/articles/17/10/2013/141594/rural-romance-heart-of-the-countryside-rupert-and.htm
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Two young “debs”….
….from England and now ready to breed. We have three Traditional Devon heifers here and two at the Walker’s Century Farm in South Carolina. We’ll try first to AI the girls to another English bull—Tilbrook Sunset—and we’ll follow with a young English bull here who was sired by TDA Falcon. The TDA partners spent a good deal of time recently discussing our breeding options…still limited because our herd is small and we want to continue our emphasis on pure Devon genetics from England.
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Mission accomplished….
Traditional Devon’s English bull, Churchill, returns to his Thistle Hill pasture after an extremely successful stay at North American Breeders for collection. The tech there called him “fantastic”…and we agree. In fact, grass fed bulls generally are far more fertile than grain fed. With all the news reports about declining sperm counts in western males, we’ve wondered whether the high level of corn fructose in young diets is partly to blame. Churchill is not yet two. He’s been used in a limited way here at Thistle Hill. His brother, Wellington, will be traveling to South Carolina in another month to be tried on our partners’ Walker Century Farms herd. And…
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Some prizes are better than others….
….and the ones that hold a pint are best of all! Here, our Cornwall Devon partner Chris Cleave holds the silver tankard he won for best commercial sheep in a recent show. Pictures do lie. Juliet assures me that the tankard was not used in the celebration after the show!
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End of an era….
….came in a phone call from one of our English partners, Brian Drake, of North Tawton. Brian poses here with the American members of the team: Bill Walker, John Forelle and myself. No one we know has been breeding Devon any longer than Brian. He took over his father’s herd in 1950 and his Essington Park genetics can be found in most of the herds in England. We’re fortunate that we were able to flush his wonderful cow Buttercup and one of her sons is approaching his first birthday here in the States. More are on the way! While he’s leaving the Devon world, he remains a good friend. We…
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They tried to tell us….
….we’re too young. Clearly time to split these two up! That’s Thistle Hill Babette snuggling up to our TDA bull Churchill. Actually, Churchill will be going off this week….to North American Breeders where we’ll be collecting him….not for sale but for protection. Traditional Devon America (TDA)….a partnership of three breeders…wants to be sure to preserve the Devon genetics we’ve gathering on our trips to southwest England.
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And the winners are….
….whoops, only one! The North Devon show in England was swept by Eastyard farm, both the champion and reserve champions were their heifers. Part of the reason for the picture though was the judge, our English partner Gavin Hunter of Tilbrook Grange. The Brits still do their shows the proper way. Note the white coats (after you note Gavin’s bowler)! Adding further cache’ to the show: Prime Minister David Cameron was in attendance. Actually, many British politicians regularly “do” the cattle show circuit and, of course, Prince Charles is a well-known Devon breeder.
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My how she’s grown….
….one of our English Devon….a Tilbrook Cashtiller heifer….in residence at Walker Century Farms in South Carolina. TDA 03 is approaching two and we’ll soon be breeding her to a Tilbrook bull, Sunset. Three of 03’s flush sisters are here at Thistle Hill, and we’ll be AI-ing them to Sunset as well. Traditional Devon is a partnership of three farms, all working together to find pure English Devon genetics for import into the United States.
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A Cornwall post card….
….one of our English friends and colleague, Juliet Cleave, has entered this picture (and others) in a British post card contest. As always, she has a way of making us feel “home sick”. The shepherd here is Juliet’s husband, Chris. We have to get back to Cornwall in the Spring!
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Cashtiller keeps on giving….
….it was love at first sight when I first saw Tilbrook Cashtiller in the yard at Gavin Hunter’s Tilbrook Grange. She became the foundation cow for a partnership with two other breeders that we named Traditional Devon America. TDA now has seven of her cows on the ground here in the States thanks to embryo transplant; three more are on the way; and eight embryos remain in the canister. Cashtiller is 13 years old now and this is her latest calf, a heifer. Gavin says this one was a little tougher for her and he’s not sure he wants to breed her again. As Wooz commented, “This is what she…