-
A beautiful day in the neighborhood….
….after more than a month without rain, we were anxious to share it with our herd. You can barely make out several of our cows through the windshield of the Gator. They seemed as happy as we were. You could sense the grass turning green and by the end of the three-hour downpour there was no question it was having an effect. While no amount of proper grazing and pasture management can overcome a drought, it does seem to make recovery much quicker. Better yet, the forecast calls for three more days of this magical—and free—fertilizer.
-
Ladies in waiting….
….two of what, in another breed, would be called our “foundation cows” are close to calving. And they’ve taken to passing the time together in a corner away from the herd and close to a gate just behind them. That leads to greener grass and an area that has been a favorite calving spot in the past. On the left is R2, mother of some of our best animals including our herd sire, U2. On the right, Q18, again a top producer. Jackpot is her son and she served as the recip mother for our wonderful little English calf, Falcon. We’ll let you know.
-
The power of meat….
….it’s the wonder drug for fertility! From Australia comes the story of a woman, a life-long vegetarian, who was told she would never have children. Went on a meat diet…had triplets! Thank God it wasn’t Thistle Hill meat! http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/vegetarian-eats-meat-falls-pregnant-with-triplets/story-fnet08ck-1226709927137
-
The anti-biotic menace…how bad is it….
….well, bad enough that the government finally recognizes it. The Center for Disease Control now recommends you stay away from meat raised with antibiotics, but of course you can’t……if you shop at the supermarket or even the few butcher shops remaining. Of course, in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of our food supply, while the CDC says stay away from meat laced with antibiotics….the USDA labels are still slapped on everything proclaiming it’s safe to eat. The problem is almost all the meat in this country is raised with the stuff, the animals are in such close quarters they’d die without it, and it also helps fatten them more quickly. Pork is a particularly…
-
Thistle Hill (and then some)….
….the greatest reward we find is helping others start their Devon herds. The excitement experienced by newcomers to the breed is infectious and never fails to remind us of our own original pleasure discovering these great cows. Case in point: Linda Hendrix and her son, John, of Pacolet, South Carolina. In just two years they’ve grown to 15 females and an outstanding bull….all originating here in Virginia. We were in neighboring North Carolina last weekend, and jumped at the chance to see how our charges were faring in their new home. They could not be doing better. Expect great things from Misty Ridge (Linda) and Plum Branch (John) farms in the not-too-distant future.
-
Coming out of the chute….
….a young lady at the recent joint meeting of the two Devon associations in North Carolina. She’s sitting on top of a Lenoir Creek Devon which was used in a demonstration. (Yes, they really are gentle!) The two associations did finally decide to bury the hatchet and merge as one under the new name “Red Devon USA”.
-
Put your heart in your mouth….
….was the name of a book written some time back by Russian-born neurologist and nutritionist, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. She now lives in England, practices at Cambridge, and is a fairly well-known authority on food as medicine. That is, known to Wooz but not to me. She developed the interest in nutrition when she had a son who was autistic. She was able to cure him just with the proper diet. This wasn’t what I intended as the first post coming back from a break, but Bill Roberts of 12 Stones Grasslands Beef had it waiting in my email box. Like Bill I find this the best summary of why natural…
-
September morn….
….a young cow greets the day atop one of Thistle Hill’s hills. She’s U31 out of one of the first females we bought from the Trantham’s Lenoir Creek farm. Sired by Watson, a Rotokawa 974 bull from Don and Heather Minto that was a major influence on our herd. We leave now for the joint meeting in North Carolina of the two Devon associations recently joined as one. Thistle Hill will have a “joint booth” in honor of the occasion with Tomina Farms. We hope you’ll stop by and say hello.
-
Parade of bulls….about “Tail-End Charlie”….
“Charlie” isn’t his name, of course. He’s Thistle Hill Falcon, an English bull, and smaller than the other bulls in the parade because he’s half their age. Actually, we think he would rank in front among a group of his contemporaries. When we were selecting animals for our Traditional Devon project, Wooz decided to free-lance by selecting a cow of her own from Ivan Rowe’s Cornwall herd…Goldings Snowdrop. We bred her to the great English bull, Millennium Falcon…from Shiamala Comer’s herd. The embryos were brought here and Falcon calved at Thistle Hill almost exactly a year ago. He is de-horned.
-
Parade of bulls….Triple 8….
Triple 8….688-8….is another line bred bull. He’s exactly two years old, the son of Rotokawa 688 of course as well as 688’s daughter, Thistle Hill Hope (R6). If you’re interested in a powerful concentration of the best Devon genetics, look no further than 688-8. He can upgrade your herd in a generation. For the argument for line breeding, here’s a quote from Gearld Fry’s recent newsletter: “There is no faster way that I know of to make genetic progress and fix traits in a herd. What happens is, a son from that particular mating will have the genetic quality traits from the mother and the quality and prepotency contained in…