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Not only falling leaves….
….but calves. And it’s good to have Wooz riding shotgun again as we move in to tag a heifer’s brand new calf…a sturdy young bull. Couldn’t help remember the old Angus days when we’d have to be sure mom was a long way off…preferably on the other side of a big fence…when we were tagging her baby. Now the Devon mom just stands overhead….mooing comfort to the calf…as we get the job done. This was one of two new calves…the other newcomer joins our Traditional English Devon™ herd. This young heifer is the second calf for TDA 4. Proud papa is TDA Ransom. I love the way she holds her…
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End of an era….
….the Jackpot era. At Thistle Hill, anyway. Jackpot being sized up by Charles Blankenship of Day Spring Farm in Altamont, Tennessee. As Jackpot loomed up in the morning haze, I heard Charles exclaim to himself: Wow! About two minutes later, he owned him. Jackpot is a son of Rotokawa 243….Ken McDowall’s favorite bull. We ai-ed him to one of our cows that has a habit of producing great bull calves. And when Ken first saw him five years ago he said, “David, you’ve hit the Jackpot!” Charles and his wife Madeleine are developing quality grass fed meat operation near Nashville based on Red Angus, but friends convinced him crossing…
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Boo!….
….the Thistle Hill Halloween decorations are up! Spooky picture by Duane Ard.
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Just sayin’….
Thanks Duane Ard.
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The Alpha and the Omega….
….it was one of those days that makes raising Devon both a joy and so fulfilling. We had checked the young mother-to-be a few hours earlier. Nothing. After a few errands, we went back out….and there was the latest addition to our herd. The hour or so old heifer cleaned up and waiting to be tagged. The was mother’s first….and she handled it like she had read the book. The dam is a granddaughter of a young cow we bought years ago from the Tranthams’ Leonoir Creek Farm. The sire was an English pairing: Ivan Rowe’s Snowdrop and Shiamala Comer’s Falcon. Just a few miles away, two of our bull calves…approaching two…
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There’s no place like home…2…
….our farm manager Duane Ard has had a remarkable string of beautiful photographs recently…all taken with his cell phone…all taken on our farm. On our first date, and knowing my wandering nature, Wooz told me firmly: “I want to make one thing clear…I will never leave this farm!” Yesterday, one of those moments. A young mother leads her very first calf to safety away from the herd at sunset. The Blue Ridge is the backdrop.
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Words to live by….
….from grandson, Sergei’s, Facebook page. (this is me keeping an eye on you, Sergei!)
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There’s no place like home…..
….we have some special places we like to visit: the Cotswolds, Tuscany, Provence. But when we look around, we are content right here. This picture is of an adjacent property the family purchased a few years ago….the Thistle Hill east pasture is across the road…and the Blue Ridge mountains beyond that. Photo by Duane Ard.
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The cycle begins again….
….with our first calf of the season….a Traditional Devon™ bull calf, TDA 20. He’s an adventuresome fellow. Here, just a half day old, and he’s returning from a jaunt about 500 yards from his mother. She waited by our Gator as he sauntered back across the field. The dam is TDA Cashtiller 2, daughter of Tilbrook Cashtiller… a producer of great bulls in England. I need grandson Church to help with the tagging now. He uses his track skills from Denison University to catch them in the open field. Try that in a 10-acre paddock sometime! To complete the pedigree: the sire is the son of Essington Buttercup and Ashott…
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Behind the scenes…..
….many, though probably not most, consumers of grass fed beef know the right questions to ask a farmer to be sure they’re getting the “real thing”. The problem is most consumers don’t know their farmer, which is why we think buying “local” is just as important as buying “grass fed”. Simply put: a good deal of what passes for grass fed is really finished on grain, and that destroys all the benefits of a pure, natural product. But the farmer is only half the story. The butcher has just as much to do with the quality and purity of the meat you buy. That’s why we surveyed a number of…