Thistle Hill Farm – Blog

…that you can click on any picture on this Blog page….and the pictures enlarge to full screen? I didn’t; and I’m supposed to be in charge here.*  Just found out by accident. We will continue now, at the same low subscription price.   * I know because I reconfirm that every morrning with Wooz.

…but a little younger than I am. Gisela and Kurt Volkert have been an important part of my life since 1967.  That’s when I was assigned to Viet Nam by CBS News.  Kurt and Gisela, newlyweds, were new to the war, too.  Kurt was one of those brave but anonymous combat cameramen who made CBS coverage of Viet Nam so noteworthy.  I kept my head down and provided the words later. Kurt is now an artist living in Germany but the Volkerts are regular visitors to the States, not so much because of the quality of my conversation but because they have a baby granddaughter living here.  Visitors, old friends, none…

It’s been a busy week at Thistle Hill…and so blogging has had to take a back seat.  But to explain: Inevitably, as you walk through your herd during the year, you make judgments: which one to keep and which one you can part with.  It’s never easy and generally comes down to which one has enough “backups” in the herd of the same bloodline.  It’s particularly difficult for Wooz who would keep all her babies….in the bedroom!  But finally, through negotiation, the decisions are made and waiting buyers are notified and shipment is arranged. But before any animals are shipped, pedigrees must be put in order, tail hairs pulled for…

….is one of the unsung jobs in the herd but, in fact, it’s an important job and apparently something of an honor. Currently that position is being filled by that young steer , not even a year old, with four of his charges.  Several more  are just out of camera range. Normally, it’s an older cow that stays with the very young calves while the herd is off grazing.  Clearly that cow has power of attorney to control and even discipline those assigned to her.  When a calf is first born, her mother keeps her close by and doesn’t return to the herd for several days.  That’s the important bonding process…

….from satisfied customers, whether it’s for our meat or our seed stock.  It’s particularly gratifying when that praise comes from experienced Devon breeders such as Linda and Rich Maurer of Madison, Virginia.  They bought a pregnant six-year old cow and a young heifer from Thistle Hill recently and the other day we received this email from Linda: “Thought you’d like to see the new calf, Frosty!  He is a BIG boy – 87 pounds, according to Rich.  He is eating and sleeping mostly.  Our Milking Devon almost literally hit the ground running.  All the beef Devon just eat and sleep for about 4 days before really testing their legs. “Anyway,…

We thought Wooz’ post on our “finishing school grads” was worth a picture.  She is certainly right (she taught me well, too) that visitors are quick to pick up on two things about our herd:  the obvious good health and vitality of the cows and how approachable they are. Veteran cattlemen can’t believe they can walk right up to our animals without them bolting, or at least shying away.  In fact, if you don’t approach our cows, they will approach you with a sniff or even a lick. Keeping the herd in a “mob”…that is grazing close together…has improved their sociability.  So has moving them every day to fresh grass. …

We’re confident enough of our “mob grazing” experiment that we’ve installed electric fencing around the perimeter of our two major pastures.  In two days, Duane Ard (foreground) and Ira McDowell stretched just about a mile of high tensile wire, three lightning grounding systems and two new energizers.  We’re now supplying about 12,000 volts to most sections of the farm. We’ll attach movable, temporary, polywire to the main line and create small sub-paddocks of less than an acre.  The idea is to put maximum cow weight—briefly—on small sections of pasture, which ensures even forage consumption and maximum trampling effect.  If we get it just right, the cows eat about a third of the grass,…

…for the Winter to come?  They say this was the earliest snowfall since the Civil War or, as folks around here call it (joking, sorta) “The War of Northern Aggression”. The cows don’t mind eating through the snow; we’ve seen them nose down almost a foot.  And they’re always amused to see what Wooz is wearing to stay warm and dry. We have mixed feelings about winter.  We like snow for the moisture it packs into the soil just before the ground freezes.   And if it melts, as this surely will, the runoff is much slower than in a rain, so we retain more water. On the other hand, ice…