-
Praise from across the pond….
…our English friend and partner, Angus Cottey, saw the picture of Thistle Hill Magic on our home page and wrote a glowing appraisal. We’re immodest enough to share it. Angus knows cows and a compliment for an American bull from the Brits is no small thing. He writes: “Magic looks a tremendous Bull, I recall your photo of him as a young calf. He certainly has grown on well. I particularly like his top line and how flat he is across the top. A good beef animal should not be pointed across the shoulders but broad and flat. They say snow should be able to settle, certainly not like a…
-
Cooking brisket….
When children, grandchildren and great-grandchild get together for Christmas Eve dinner, you need a substantial piece of meat. Brisket, I think, is the perfect choice. Several of our Thistle Hill customers report they also had wonderful meals this year, slow-cooking our grass fed brisket. So I share Wooz’ “old family recipe”, which is certainly old if not family. It’s from a cookbook published in 1958 with a Wooz twist. Here’s her version: Every once in a while a great recipe meets a great piece of meat and the result is pleasing to all. This Christmas Eve we tried an old recipe with a perfect brisket from our own Thistle Hill Devon…
-
You can go home again…
….at least if you’re Thistle Hill’s Q25. She was born on this same pasture seven years ago…sold to John and Teri Guevremont’s Reality Farm of nearby Sperryville, Virginia three years ago…and now returned here for mating with one of our bulls. Q25 is one cow we should have never let get away. With the superb Rotokawa 667 on both sides of her pedigree, we sold her with an outstanding bull calf that John and Teri are now using on their grass-based Angus herd. Hopefully, we’ll be able to arrange for his temporary return as well. It’s a line we’d like to re-establish here. Reality Farm is our preferred source for…
-
An update on our English calves…
…at Walker Century Farms in South Carolina. Bill and Nancy Walker are our partners in Trditional Devon America and caretakers of these two heifers. They’re English Devon calves sired by the great Cutcombe Jaunty out of the famous Tilbrook Cashtiller. There are three more heifers here at Thistle Hill along with two bull calves. They’re all products of our joint effort to import Devon genetics from England. Because of export restrictions, we could not import the cows we discovered, so we bred them there, flushed the embryos, brought them to the United States and implanted them in American cows. These year old calves are the result.
-
The looming meat “cliff”….
…and we could be falling off that, too. Kit Pharo linked to the drought monitor today and it demonstrates that while the drought over much of the country is forgotten….it certainly isn’t gone! http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/12_week.gif The drought has forced many ranchers we know in the Midwest and West to cut back their herds or even close down completely. The increased number of cattle going to slaughter earlier in the year has kept cattle prices fairly low, despite the high cost of corn. But now the overall national herd is at record low numbers and demand has been forcing cattle prices (and beef) to rise. But the worst is yet to come. …
-
When it absolutely has to be there overnight….
….we always hope transport driver Mark Howard is available. The other day we made a large (for us) shipment of six cows with calves and a bull to two farms in Tennessee. The scheduled morning arrived and so did a heavy rain the night before. That made it impossible for Mark’s big rig to get down to the pens to load directly. So we ferried the animals in our trailer….three at a time….with our tractor standing by to pull us out of the mud, if necessary. Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary. Here farm manager Duane Ard (he was hoping for a raise for Christmas but we gave him a promotion instead)…
-
This just in….
….with apologies for the picture quality, we still think you can determine the quality of the subjects. These are the next two truly pure and traditional English Devon imported by Thistle Hill farm in partnership with two other breeders. Actually, embryos were imported and then implanted in American cows, who carried them to term. These calves are now two months old, both sired by Ashott Barton Millennium Falcon in Devon, England. This has been a labor of love for John and Patricia Forelle of New York, Nancy and Bill Walker of South Carolina and ourselves for several years. Our intention is not only to make a major impact on the American Devon…
-
In the “calf-bird” seat….
…a favorite napping place for calves, particularly when it’s cold or wet. Certainly more comfortable than the hard ground. Mom probably likes it, too. She can key an eye on Junior while eating. Sometimes the calves refuse to move, even when we want to dump a new bale into the ring. Sometimes, we also miss the ring when we’re “dumping”….thus the bent metal. Maybe Santa Claus will see this and….
-
Suspicions Confirmed Department
Actually, we’re not big fans of these kinds of studies….seems the results too often reflect the prejudice of the researcher. But since this time it’s my prejudice, why not? Eating junk food makes you dumber. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57558579/need-your-brain-this-food-can-make-you-dumber/
-
Upgrading two pastures….
….by adding all-weather water points. These non-freeze waterers (if there is such a word) will give us greater flexibility to move our herd around. Neighbor Herman Harlow is at the controls of the back hoe and I’m imitating a highway construction crew. Herman has done a lot of site work for us over the years and I’m always fascinated by how precisely he can maneuver that big claw. Even more amazing is how he can level the bottom of a deep hole from his perch in the back hoe. I used to check with a level but no more. After a good freeze, the nutritional value of our fescue…