• Tie breaking vote…

    Ever since he calved two years ago, Blizzard here has been one of our leading candidates for Thistle Hill herd bull.  He’s the son of Watson and what is probably our best cost and visitors generally singled him out.  But we wavered between Blizzard (technically U180) and U2.  Also a Watson son but by another damn. Now, the decision has been made for us.  Michael Heller of Clagett Farm near Upper Marlboro has purchased Blizzard for his herd.  It was a tough decision for him, too, partly because he wasn’t sure about Blizzard status as a horned bull.  Of course, it’s unlikely that there’ll be any horned calves since all…

  • Going, going….

    ….our latest offering of Pork Paks is just about sold out.  We’re down to our last two boxes and, when they’re gone, we’ll have only a few individual packages of sausage and ham steaks left. Each box contains: Pork chops   6 Ham steaks  4 Bacon   2 Sausages (bratwurst, sweet Italian, breakfast links)   2 packages each The box weighs about 15 pounds and costs just $5.50/lb per actual weight. If you live within driving distance of Hume, Virginia and want to try our delicious, natural, pure pork contact us at info@thistlehill.net or phone (540) 364-2090.  Sorry, we do not ship our meat.

  • On our home page….

    We wanted to alert those who skip our Home Page and come direct to this blog that we’ve posted some pictures of our 688 line-bred calves there. We’re not entirely convinced that breeding a sire (even one as good as Rotokawa 688) to his daughter is a good idea.  But in these matters, at least, we think it’s a good idea to try something for ourselves before making a decision. So far, the results have been excellent.  Of the 10 embryos implanted, we got seven calves…two males and five females.  One of the bull calves died at about six months and, while we think it was the shock of a…

  • About those gestation cages….

    …here’s a picture of your McDonald’s breakfast Sausage McMuffin I ran across on a political blog today.  The company is asking its producers to stop the practice…sometime in the future.  But their recommendation is to put the sows in the same kind of crowded housing they use for their piglets and continue pumping them full of antibiotics and hormones to keep them growing and breeding….until they drop.  For now, you can see the pigs can’t even turn around. Thistle Hill pigs are entirely free range, grazing with the cows and rooting for acorns.  You may not have believed me the other day when I said we could tell they were…

  • Better living through chemistry…

    More and more, I find myself wondering how long man can continue playing with Nature before we pay the ultimate price.  Experiments with that ultra-flu virus make me think that way.  So does reading that scientists in the Netherlands have developed a glob they think is artificial beef.  The first hamburger will be ready to serve in the Fall. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9091628/Test-tube-hamburgers-to-be-served-this-year.html There’s a somewhat limited market for a $400,000 dollar hamburger but mass production will kick in and take care of that.  But what would be the real price of such a burger?  And I don’t mean all the un-calculated real costs in energy and transportation and minerals involved in production.  I…

  • A bull’s life…

    …ain’t bad at Thistle Hill.  First, there are fences so the women can’t run too far.  We’re using two very young bulls this year and each has a very limited work load.  (You call this work?)  But with all the AI and embryo transplants, they should have no more than about 10 cows each to cover. This is U6.  He has Rotokawa 688 back a few generations on both sides of his pedigree.  The cows and heifers are all 974 descendants, so it should be quite a pairing.  U6 is with the heifers and first-calf heifers; U2 is across the road handling the older cows. We think one of the…

  • Devon cattle in England…

    Continuing the dialogue from the previous post…. The four cattle-judging events in England each year are very formal events.  The judges, as you can see, wear bowlers and black suits.  All the animal handlers and owners dress in white smocks.  Wouldn’t want a judge looking at my cow that way! This judge is Gavin Hunter, whose own herd, Tilbrook, is one of the very best in the United Kingdom.  We have now partnered with Gavin to bring embryos from his champion cow Cashtiller here to the States.  For years, Cashtiller won everything in sight (not with Gavin judging) and many consider her the best cow in a generation. Devon were first…

  • First, let’s be clear…..

    …Prince Charles is not one of my favorite characters on the international scene.  But he is a farmer and raises Devon.  He and I attended the Royal Cornwall show a few years back.  (Full disclosure:  he arrived by helicopter; I came in a bus.  BUT THAT IS NOT ME IN THE COW HAT!) I digress.  The point of this post is that we’ve just seen a copy of the speech the Prince made on “food” at Georgetown University last year.  It is one of the best treatise I’ve read on the subject and, if you’re new to the subject and this blog, grab a cup of coffee and settle down for…

  • You should know….

    ….that all the big producers are patting themselves on the back for their humane treatment of animals.  McDonald’s has joined Chipotle in campaigns to get their suppliers of pork to stop keeping their pigs in gestation pens.  They’re crates really, about two feet wide, so the sows can’t even turn around.  From the Wall Street Journal: McDonald’s Corp. is pushing its pork suppliers to stop confining sows in small pens known as gestation stalls, moving to address concerns raised by animal-welfare advocates—and catch up with some competitors. The burger giant on Monday said the pens are “not a sustainable production system” and there are alternatives that “are better for the welfare…

  • Two old cowboys “chew the fat”…..

    While I can be hard on government ag agents, it was one of those critters (since reformed) who set us on the path to grass fed cattle and, indirectly, Devon. His name is Jim Gerrish, a consultant now, who lives and works out of Idaho.  Jim visited Thistle Hill almost 10 years ago, when we were still a traditional operation using chemicals, feeding grain, and not really interested in eating our own meat.  That really shocked Jim at the time and he immediately pointed out a cow that we should slaughter and taste. Jim also recommended moving our calving to the Fall, to spare the cows the stress of Virginia’s…