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The happy marriage…
…of two great English herds at Thistle Hill. TDA 31 is an embryo heifer from Goldings Farm in Cornwall and Ashott Barton Farm in Somerset. 31 is Exhibit A in what we hoped to achieve with our pursuit of pure traditional English Devon genetics. We would be hard-pressed to find some way to improve her. The dam was Goldings Norah who we discovered in Ivan Rowe’s pastures at Lands End. Ivan told told us to select any cow we wanted from his herd of more than 100 Devon. He’d wait for us back at the house. Wooz and I trudged back and forth in the rain all afternoon before settling…
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The Thistle Hill Alumni Club….
….celebrates the 13th birthday of its charter member! Thistle Hill Goldie celebrated the day at his home in Bugtussle, Kentucky. Eric Smith reports Goldie is still going strong after all these years. We’re often asked what’s the useful life of a bull and we normally say 10 to 12 years. Looks like we’re going to recognize the “Goldie Rule”. Happy Birthday, Goldie…and many more! This reminds me that one of the big advantages of a grass fed bull is longevity….along with potency. Grass fed bulls do have higher semen counts. Incidentally, “Bugtussle” is not as unusual a name for a town (and farm) as you might think. There’s also a Bugtussle,…