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You gotta love her….
Wooz and I spent an enjoyable few hours with son, Church, today photographing much of our herd. We wanted new photos to “freshen” the website. We also wanted to grade our younger cows…such as X64 here with her mom. 64 seems to turn out “A’s” year in and year out and her calves are always among the first to be singled out by potential buyers. We, in turn, make sure that we always keep two 64 females in our herd for protection. In the main pasture right in front of the house is part of that “protection”, U64. She’s the granddaughter of one great Rotokawa bull, 974, and just bred to…
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I’m from the government and I’m here to help you….
We try to keep politics out of our blogging….we really try. But the #&*@! pointy-headed bureaucrats are doing it again. They’re about to promulgate a regulation which would make it illegal for us to have our grandchildren join us in working on the farm. From the time they’re able, some of our grandkids love to help out; others aren’t interested. They all want to drive the 4-wheeler, of course, and will do any chore that involves that. Sorry kids….the Obama Administration says Grandpa is trying to kill you. Please watch the following. I know it’s crazy Fox News and all that…and the comments go “off the wall”….but still watch, please.…
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We’re off to the races….
Once again this year we were one of the sponsors of the Old Dominion Hunt’s point-to-point races. This time though we had something else on the menu besides food, drink and run. Thanks to great friends we raffled off some prizes to benefit the Wounded Warriors Project. Wooz and I and Church and Barbara are pleased to report we raised $3,534 for this good cause. We particularly want to thank the owners of the Black Horse Inn, who contributed a stay at their fine inn. The other prizes were a massage from Renata Shields of Orlean, spice packages from Tolsons Appliance Center and, of course, meat from Thistle Hill. Among the guests…
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Just because…
…we like to look at pictures of cows, particularly our alumni…..or should it be alumnae? Ann Merryman, who has a beautiful farm near Sparks, Maryland, just sent us a picture of two heifers she purchased from Thistle Hill last fall. As we expected, they’ve thrived under Ann’s care and appear to be in perfect body condition for breeding. Both heifers are daughters of Rotokawa 93 and their sister was retained here at Thistle Hill. Incidentally, we knew that Ann had been a horse trainer of note, but not until more recently had we discovered she had trained the horses in one of our favorite movies, “Seabiscuit”.
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Cashtiller does it again….
…was the heading on the email we received recently from an English friend, Gavin Hunter. Once again his magnificent cow Cashtiller has sired a bull that won top price at the national Devon show. That’s three straight bull calves and Gavin, throwing caution to the wind, had actually named this bull Hat Trick. Sports fans know that three-in-a-row is called a “hat trick. We actually saw Hat Trick two years ago as a youngster, still at Cashtiller’s side, when we visited Tilbrook Grange on a Devon tour. But we only had eye’s for the famous Cashtiller and quickly arranged with Gavin to flush her and import embryos to the States. Those calves…
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What can you say?
A bald eagle perched on a tombstone at the national cemetery outside Minneapolis. (Our thanks to Bill Roberts of 12 Stones Grassland Beef)
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All dirt is not the same…..
Water (not oil) may be our most precious resource but dirt isn’t far behind. And with all the changes we’ve made to our pastures at Thistle Hill (and the addition of more acreage) we thought it was time for a complete analysis of our soil. So last week we brought in Tellus Consulting again for a survey. Tim Woodward (on the left) took samples in seven key and representative pastures. Not sure who the old geezer was on the right who showed up to watch. The hundreds of samples are sent off to a lab in Ohio…put through a number of tests to identify the mineral content, fertility, pH and…
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As I was saying….
…before our modem quit. Well, more precisely, before three modems and three techs finally solved the problem. It is not with complete confidence that I try this post….I’ve gotten this far many times only to see the internet suddenly fade away. The headlines while you (we) were gone: Pork is sold out. More beef and pork in late May or June. Rave reviews which I’ll share later. All our older bulls but one are sold; we deliver 180 in a few days. The next crop of bulls and heifers are doing beautifully and we’ll have quite a few arguments over how many we can keep. We really are at our…
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It was bound to happen….
Someone would eventually realize how glamorous cows really are. And it’s finally happened….in a Dallas boutique, of course. These cow mannequins are sporting not only the latest designer gowns, but thousands of dollars in jewelry. We think our cows are gorgeous just the way they are…but maybe a little sparkle on their ear tags would be nice.
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Tie breaking vote…
Ever since he calved two years ago, Blizzard here has been one of our leading candidates for Thistle Hill herd bull. He’s the son of Watson and what is probably our best cost and visitors generally singled him out. But we wavered between Blizzard (technically U180) and U2. Also a Watson son but by another damn. Now, the decision has been made for us. Michael Heller of Clagett Farm near Upper Marlboro has purchased Blizzard for his herd. It was a tough decision for him, too, partly because he wasn’t sure about Blizzard status as a horned bull. Of course, it’s unlikely that there’ll be any horned calves since all…