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A Star is born…
…we’ve seen unusual activity around the picture we posted recently of our guard donkey Jenny. She and her partner Jack have been faithful servants of the Thistle Hill herd for about 20 years…and all they ever get is a hug and a scratch. Well Jenny demands them and here Mackenzie Mason is happy to oblige. David
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After the storm…
…a mother and son relax on the comparative warmth of an unrolled bale of hay. It provides some insulation against the frozen ground below. David
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Just for fun…
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Meat sales soar…
…according to a survey of supermarket and on-line buying. Meat during this pandemic year has gained about 20% in sales volume…it’s now 35% of the food dollar and twice as much as chicken. https://www.supermarketnews.com/meat/meat-sales-reach-record-highs-2020-increasing-192 It’s interesting that on-line sales have really increased while at the same time people are more concerned about healthy food. Now note this summary is based on dollar sales…not pounds. But now that younger people have broken the restaurant habit, will they continue cooking at home? Will their interest in healthy foods continue? Most smaller farmers we know haven’t been able to gear-up production to get a piece of this action. Nor do they have the…
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The heavy lifting…
…is left to son-in-law Curt Humphries who is stuck with the jobs no one else wants…in this case finding a missing calf and returning her to mama. THF 13 is a blend of English and American genetics. Mom is from our favorite “2” line and the sire again was our Essington Park bull. David
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Update on F100…
…aka THF Prince…an English bull approaching his second birthday. This was the result of Wooz’ final pairing…selecting animals originating in Shiamala Comer’s Ashott Barton herd in England. We purchased one of her outstanding Tulip heifers and bred her to Jaunty..originally a Cutcombe bull that won many prizes. As a result, we not only have Prince but a full sister to build on…plus another pair of Ashott Barton heifers out of Bribery also sired by Jaunty. So Wooz’ imprint on the Thistle Hill herd will certainly be a lasting one. David
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A spring morn update….
….and the grass is a long time coming. We’re keeping the main herd in this sacrifice pasture and continuing to feed hay. Just because we miscalculated we can’t ask the cows to pay for our mistake! Not only isn’t there enough yet, but this early the grass is “washy”…not as nutrient rich. On the other hand, you can’t see it but there is a beautiful stand of clover coming along. We estimate in a few weeks we’ll be able to move the herd to begin our serious rotational grazing. The steer calf in the picture is half English…the full English cow sharing the hay was calved at Thistle Hill and…
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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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This just in…
…all natural grass fed, grass finished beef! Now there’s a delicious mouthful…and nutritious, too! Thistle Hill Farm is back in full operation now under the direction of grandson Church Humphreys. Our focus remains the marketing of the very best Devon seedstock but that doesn’t mean we can’t set aside a limited number of animals for personal consumption. Again we’re offering whole carcasses, halves and quarters. Bulk Prices range from $7 to $7.50 a pound…and that’s packaged weight in individual cuts. We’ll also endeavor to provide special packages of our mouth-watering hamburgers. You’ve never tasted anything this good..and a bulk buy at just $6 a pound is a family bargain. To…
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More about Buttercup…
…see below “All we could have hoped for…”. The dam of our Buttercup was Essington Park 136, photographed the day we first saw her at Essington Park in 2010. She was standing a bit apart from her herd. And she was always that way particularly with a calf at her side. Did she know her pedigree stretched back more than 100 years? She was Brian Drake’s favorite too. He liked her trouble free performance..a calf every year right on schedule. Mobile; she was always first to the best new grass. And a solid mother. Her babies did not wander…where she put them is where they stayed, even if a stranger…