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Heading out on assignment…
…a young pure traditional Devon bull out of Ashott Barton Tulip. F100 is 25 months old and just passed his breeding soundness test. His assignment is an easy one…servicing three young cows we sold bred to Paul and Lauren Rohwer in Ijamsville, Maryland plus a few others. Those Thistle Hill heifers have all calved and are now ready for rebreeding. With both an American herd and the english bloodlines we have to maintain a large inventory of herd bulls. Church has developed an important sideline offering them at stud. F100 will stay at the Rohwers for 70 days. It’s a cost effective way to build a herd! David
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The Class of 2021…
…the next batch of piglets have arrived at Thistle Hill and will “graduate” next March! We’ve pretty much settled on crosses of Berkshire and Tamworth for our purposes…both are heritage English pigs known for their bacon and hams. We’ve also found they’re easy to handle…no minor attribute when dealing with pigs. Their predecessors incidentally are now in our freezers and you can order cuts. Of course you can also reserve one of the Class of 2021…a half or whole! Contact Church at (214) 802-1283churchhh@gmail.com David
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November sunrise…
A crisp fall morning on the farm…as Church does the early morning rounds of the pastures. The Blue Ridge in the background. David
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A true confession…
…I must admit I never liked pork much until we processed the first pigs raised at Thistle Hill. The difference between that pork and the factory-raised pork in restaurants and supermarkets was unbelievable…greater even than the gap between store-bought vegetables and the garden variety. Recently Carolyn prepared one of our ham steaks and it was delicious. She reports she used only some hot mango chutney sauce and cloves…cooked at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. The result: Not to be outdone, grandson Church thawed some pork chops for his dinner. Even the best steaks would have trouble competing with this! Since that first experience…I’ve tasted other pasture raised pork and it’s…
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The final three…
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A refresher course…
In grass finished versus grain finished beef. An increasing number of people seem to be turning away from industrialized beef and trying the grass finished version. Farmers too are increasingly marketing their own products…not willing to accept the take-it-or-leave-it pricing of the national processors. Just a few…like Walter Jeffries in Vermont, Joel Salatin in Virgina and Greg Gunthorp in Indiana…have gone all the way and have vertically integrated their operation, including everything from production to processing to direct marketing. At the forefront of that group is White Oak Pastures in Blufton, Georgia…a giant operation with 150 employees and 10 different kinds of animals under production. Its webpage includes a review…
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Fall at Thistle Hill…
…is the most beautiful time of year. Well, except for the dogwood and rosebud trees in the Spring. Mackenzie Mason used Church’s new drone to check out our 200+ acres of woods and captured some of the colors. There’s a brief glimpse of their home about halfway. David
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The three latest…
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We’ve calved 21…
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Falling behind…
…with calves coming faster than we can post them…or tag them! THF 15 (top photo) comes jammed with many of our best pure traditional English genetics…Ashott-Barton, Goldings, Cutcombe, Essington Park. He’s a 75-pound bull calf out of our English herd. THF 16 (middle photo) is a 65-pound heifer destined for our American herd. Her dam traces back to the Lenoir Creek and Lakota herds…sire is English. THF 17 (bottom photo) is a cross pairing we really like for our meat production…a combination of Devon and Senepol. The quality and yield just can’t be beat! David