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Problem solved….
Our friend Tom Neal has considered the problem we’re grappling with—the demand for Thistle Hill Devon beef out-pacing the supply— and he has come up with the answer. He calls it: Tom’s Jim Dandy Devon Cow Stretcher and the prototype seems to work pretty well. We particularly like that the length added is in the higher-priced loin area. We’re hoping that, in future upgrades, Tom will be able to custom enlarge the cow to meat customers’ particular desires. But now we hasten to add that, of course, this is a Photo-shopped picture. Our fellow Devon breeders take all this pretty seriously, so we want to make it clear this cow…
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The agony of being “sold out”…
We finally had some beef to sell last week…briefly. We put an announcement out to our email list Friday afternoon that we were taking orders and, again, in less than two hours the meat was spoken for. That response is always gratifying. We do think Devon beef is something special but it’s good to get the reinforcement. As you know, we’re primarily developing seed stock here for other farmers but, since meat is always the “bottom line”, we do maintain a limited list of meat customers to check on how we’re doing. This time, though, there was a glitch…the computer Send function went down but the orders kept coming in…
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End of an era….
Kristi and Rich Hamilton, who have purchased quite a few cows, steers and a bull from us, today picked up our last pure Senepol cows to add to their own herd. The three cows have been wonderful performers, all three are in calf by a Devon bull again, and are steady and reliable. However, our Devon herd has grown to our target size and we have more and more pure, traditional English Devon on the way. We were simply running out of room, even with all our neighbors who have volunteered pastures. The decision was not an easy one for us, made possible in our minds only by knowing the…
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The girls of Thistle Hill…
…slow down for a picture. All except for our Lab, who was off chasing squirrels. Pokey (Pocahontas) is now just over four months old and is as smart as she is beautiful. Much the same could be said about Wooz. The highlight of Pokey’s day is to ride along on the Gator and supervise moving the cows to a new patch of grass. Her other job is to take the handle on the far end of the electric wire and run it to me. That takes a lot of the weight off the reel and makes it far easier and faster to crank. For those who are new to the…
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Still another innovation at Thistle Hill….
We’re constantly experimenting here at Thistle Hill, looking for new and better ways to care for our farm and our cattle and, not incidentally, improve the quality of our meat. This tanker truck is spraying some test pastures with a mixture of microbes and fungi…one of several approaches we’re using to strengthen the root system and thicken the grasses in our pastures. The improved yield means better nutrition for the cows and also could enable us to increase the number of animals on the farm. But what we are particularly aiming for is a stronger, healthier stand of grass in the summer. Virginia’s hot, dry summers bring grass production almost…
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Another ego trip for our pigs…
Noted Virginia artist Tom Neel dropped by Thistle Hill yesterday to do some research on pigs. When they get to about this weight, our pigs start to get suspicious of strangers so we had to spread a little feed on the ground to keep them close for Tom’s camera. He snapped them eating, walking, drinking and quarreling with Jack, the donkey and Darby, one of our ponies. Tom’s paintings are always on display at the Live and Artful Life gallery in The Plains. Thistle Hill pigs featured there soon!
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Whistle while you work….
You wouldn’t think that, with a name like Thistle Hill, we’d be making war on thistles. But this is grandson, Church, on summer break, practicing his back-swing for tennis. That’s what we tell him anyway. Actually thistles, which blanketed the farm 10 years ago, have virtually disappeared, particularly in the pastures where we practice mob grazing. This is the field where we keep young bulls and it is set-stocked. And, of course, we don’t use herbicides for weed control. Bad for the tennis game. It’s great having Church here for the summer. He’s all “growed” and can out-work me. (He carries four mineral bags at a time; I lift one, and…
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Nobody tell Wooz….
…our cows are pampered enough. But in Canada they’re taking it to a high art, believing it helps with production. Dairy cows even have massages and even water beds. The story is here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/2012/05/29/sci-cows-chiropractors.html Of course, the idea isn’t new. Wooz believes talking to our cows has definitely been a factor in their ultra-docility. And we’ve seen studies saying cows perform better when you call them by name. Going back a little farther, I remember an uncle playing classical music on a battered old radio for his cows….70 years ago. And of course the lonely cowboy on the trail singing to a nervous herd is the stuff of legend, though it…
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Help a needy farmer?
We’re not sure we are ready for the label “needy farmer” but it is kind of fun to be a poster boy for Holistic Management International. Thistle Hill was one of several farms selected by HMI to demonstrate its program and, in this circular and on its website, raise funds. You can learn more about the pilot project we took part in by reading the post immediately following and you can see the poster by clicking here. img20120601_17180653 You can also see the video by going to www.holisticmanagement.org but, warning, it is not for the faint of heart.
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The whole farm, the whole farm family….
Almost 100 people gathered at Sperryville’s Old School House last night to hear about Holistic Management International’s plans for a new program in the Upper Piedmont. The meeting also served as kind of a graduation ceremony and report for those of us who had taken part in an HMI pilot project for the past year. Most of all it turned into a wonderful evening of making new friends and sharing experiences. It wasn’t for more than an hour after the scheduled adjournment, that the last attendees headed for their cars. Those of us in the pilot project had vastly different operations, both in the type of farming we do and in…