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Our bulls…
…have become an increasingly important part of our operation…not only joining herds from Canada to Louisiana but as leased sires to smaller farms that can’t justify a full-time bull. Right now we have eight bulls at work for Thistle Hill…and a dozen more in the development stage. Our bull pen is still headed by Highwayman, sired by the English bull Millennium Falcon. The dam was from the Goldings herd of the legendary cattleman Ivan Rowe. Ivan gave us the pick of his herd and smiled a rare smile when we selected Norah. It was the only pedigree that he had carried in his pocket. Ivan judged many breeds in his…
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Sad to report…
…the passing of legendary Devon breeder Ken McDowall of New Zealand. Ken’s Rotokawa bulls were at the center of the great Devon resurgence at the turn of the century. While there is some dispute over just who “discovered” Ken, there is no doubt it was Gearld Fry and Ridge Shinn who popularized the great Rotokawa bulls in America like 688, 982, 667 and many more. Eventually Fry, Shinn and a partner brought the entire Rotokawa herd here to the States where they’ve settled in Hardwick, Massachusetts. Ken was a great friend to Thistle Hill and he spent many days here freely dispensing his breeding wisdom. I treasure those conversations as…
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Gearld Fry stricken….
….we have received word through a family member that Gearld Fry, who has played a key role in the revival of the Devon breed, has been diagnosed with cancer. Fry has a farm in Rose Bud, Arkansas and was one of the founders of the North American Devon Association and is currently on the board of the successor organization, Red Devon USA. Only recently Fry re-married after losing his wife, Margie, to cancer following a long illness. This would seem to be an unbearable twist of fate and we pray Gearld will fight his way through this.
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It’s about time….
The boards of directors of the major Devon organizations in the United States have now voted, in principal, to a merger of the two associations. While the proverbial “devil is in the details”, this is the first time after two years of flirting, that a date for the marriage has been set. The expectation is that the final agreement will come at a joint membership meeting of ADCA and NADA in North Carolina September 26th-28th. NADA split off from ADCA six years ago in a bitter dispute over then-president Gearld Fry’s plans to enlarge the board and change some of its officers. He left ADCA and established the North American Devon Association,…