The future…

…is in good hands!  Two yearling bulls we have high hopes for.

In the background is one of the first calves from our herd bull Essington.  He’s from a premier English herd that was the work for many decades of Brian Drake…a herd that now sadly belongs to history.

In the foreground is the first American descendant of another historic English line, Champson.  He’s by Champson Defender.

Grandson Church came up with some Champson semen at UK Sires that, frankly, didn’t look very promising but decided to try it.  He hit on the very first attempt and so we now have three pure, traditional English bloodlines on our Virginia pastures.

Just for good measure a second Defender calf is due next month.  Nice going, Church!

Finally for those who haven’t been following our English Devon project…it began about 10 years ago when we discovered that the traditional herds were disappearing due to cross-breeding.

Today it is almost impossible to come up with a pure, traditional Devon bull in England…or here for that matter.  

Thistle Hill has become the sole repository for those genetics faster than we ever imagined.

David