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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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Meeting of the braintrust…
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PS to TDA 35…
……in the previous post “Introducing TDA 35” (see below)I talked about a moment 10 years ago when I first saw the young bull’s dam. Moments after posting I recalled Wooz was handling the camera at that moment. So I dug into the archives and sure enough there it was. Ivan Rowe, my Cornish mate, pretty much owns all the pastures around St. Just…right down to Lands End at the southwestern tip of England. The cow is Norah 14…and his herd contains 100 more just like her! Ivan gave us the pick of the herd and we chose her to mate with Millennium Falcon. Read the next post to see one…
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The next generation…
…and a picture of the result of mating our oldest American cow with a young British bull. The dam is 17 years old and still producing. But Church has decided it’s time to work in her replacement. This 16-month old heifer will be filling some mighty big hooves. Mom produced a string of outstanding bull calves. So it was an easy decision to set aside F212 for the main herd. The sire is Traditional Devon Highwayman…descended from the finest bull I ever saw in England…Ashott Barton Millennium. So we feel we’ve bred the best of both worlds…English and American! David
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Let the real test begin…
…in the final analysis it’s not the bull…nor the pedigree…but the calves. Cutcombe represents one of the first second generation all English animals born in America. Sired by Ashott Barton Millennium falcon and out of TDA 4. We hope to see his deep ruby red coat show up in his upcoming calves. And Cutcombe’s first calves are due any day now.
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Thistle Hill East….revisited….
….the other day we featured our young cow “Bribery” at Bovine Genetics near Cambridge. Actually the village is called “Bishops Itchington”. (Much of the fun in England is in the town names.) Now here is ” Ashott Barton Tulip“, who has also completed flushing. Scroll down below the picture for more information. A second shipment of embryos from both animals is flying across the Atlantic as this is being written. (4.22.16) All the English genetics we import, for ourselves and for Traditional Devon™, land at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. From there they’re trucked to Adel, Iowa. Embryos and semen are stored at Hawkeye Services until we’re ready for them. Then, it’s…
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Warning: do not try this at home….
….unless Mom is a Devon. Grandson Church Humphreys fortunately was on Thanksgiving break from college this morning to “bulldog” two newborn English calves. This one is a heifer out of Essington Park Buttercup by Ashott Barton Millennium Falcon. Just slightly up the hill her full brother was also born overnight. In both cases the dams put their noses right into the action…mooing softly to the calves that Church wouldn’t hurt them. Of course, David with his tag applicator and pliers to pull tail hairs was another matter. Note that we use our best cows as recips. We feel they’re every bit as important as the actual donor cow and sire.…
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Not only falling leaves….
….but calves. And it’s good to have Wooz riding shotgun again as we move in to tag a heifer’s brand new calf…a sturdy young bull. Couldn’t help remember the old Angus days when we’d have to be sure mom was a long way off…preferably on the other side of a big fence…when we were tagging her baby. Now the Devon mom just stands overhead….mooing comfort to the calf…as we get the job done. This was one of two new calves…the other newcomer joins our Traditional English Devon™ herd. This young heifer is the second calf for TDA 4. Proud papa is TDA Ransom. I love the way she holds her…
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The cycle begins again….
….with our first calf of the season….a Traditional Devon™ bull calf, TDA 20. He’s an adventuresome fellow. Here, just a half day old, and he’s returning from a jaunt about 500 yards from his mother. She waited by our Gator as he sauntered back across the field. The dam is TDA Cashtiller 2, daughter of Tilbrook Cashtiller… a producer of great bulls in England. I need grandson Church to help with the tagging now. He uses his track skills from Denison University to catch them in the open field. Try that in a 10-acre paddock sometime! To complete the pedigree: the sire is the son of Essington Buttercup and Ashott…
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Recharging our batteries – 4….
….took us next on our annual sabbatical deep into Cornwall….land of Doc Martin…and Poldark…and Juliet Cleave. Juliet’s infectious high spirits captivated us on our very first bus ride in the area. (she was the local tour director) So it was pre-ordained that we’d invite her and her husband, Chris, to join our Traditional Devon™ group. Speaking of Poldark, the Cleaves relationship is straight out of a BBC romance. For years they cast longing glances across the stone walls separating their two family farms. Finally, after too many years of delay, Juliet got up enough nerve to embolden Chris to propose. Their Kew Herd has blossomed, too, and is now one of the premier…