• Bad beef is getting a little cheaper….

    ….according to market reports.  Industrial beef supplies are dropping from their record highs but still well above the level they were at when the boom began seven years ago.  It’s pretty much based on the price of corn and farmers have planted ever inch of ground thanks to the ethanol boom. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-27/fattest-ever-u-s-cattle-herd-signals-end-to-record-beef-prices Normally it takes quite a while…at least six months…for the price a farmer gets to be reflected at the meat counter or restaurant.  And with the actual meat accounting for less and less of the price, it’s probably that again it will be the farmer who will be hit….you’ll probably not notice a hamburger getting any cheaper. You…

  • We aim to please….

    ….nothing’s too good for a Thistle Hill animal.  It turned very cold the other night and so we put out a bale of hay for our pigs to burrow into for warmth.  Today it’s sunny and the temperature is rising so they simply plopped down on top.  That’s our new boar and his three sows.  What’s the saying?  “It’s a pig’s life.” Any comparison between the way pigs are raised at Thistle Hill and your industrial pork?

  • Warning: do not try this at home….

    ….unless Mom is a Devon. Grandson Church Humphreys fortunately was on Thanksgiving break from college this morning to “bulldog” two newborn English calves.  This one is a heifer out of Essington Park Buttercup by Ashott Barton Millennium Falcon. Just slightly up the hill her full brother was also born overnight.  In both cases the dams put their noses right into the action…mooing softly to the calves that Church wouldn’t hurt them.  Of course, David with his tag applicator and pliers to pull tail hairs was another matter. Note that we use our best cows as recips.  We feel they’re every bit as important as the actual donor cow and sire.…

  • Keeping up with the demand….

    ….until now, we’ve been content to buy 6 to 8 piglets every year and sell a little pork.  But the demand has far outstripped our supply….so much that we don’t even announce when our pigs are nearing harvest. We think the exceptional flavor everyone raves about is due to the breeds we use—Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spot—but also to our insistence on using only non-GMO feed.  The acorns we get in the fall certainly help, too. The problem has been that raising pigs properly is very expensive and we’ve just not been able to even break even.  In fact, we lose $2.70 on every pound of pork we sell.  (Clearly not…

  • Now all they have is de Blasio…

    ….but there was a time when New York City had cows….cows grazing right next to Grand Central Station.  Depends on your definition of progress. https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/when-cows-grazed-next-to-grand-central/

  • Antibiotics….

    ….right up there with ISIS and maybe even climate change.  This is only one of several reports in the past week on the menace of antibiotic resistant superbugs.  And this article makes the point that you’re not really protected simply by refusing the drugs for yourself, except in dire emergencies. http://news.yahoo.com/dangerously-high-antibiotic-resistance-levels-worldwide-112717705.html Thistle Hill never uses antibiotics that will find its way into our meat, of course, but 70% of all the antibiotic consumption in the United States is used in agriculture.

  • 1/48th day old….

    ….or 30 minutes.  Mom is 1/4 Senepol….the rest Devon.  It’s a cross we really like for our meat operation.  The yield is better and no loss of quality.  The sire is one of our personal English bulls that Wooz calls “Handsome Ransom”. We like to tag pretty fast…before these guys “get their legs”.  But we also like to see them get their first milk with colostrum before we distract Mom, particularly a first calf heifer like this one. As it was it was a bit of a struggle.  Took two of us and two tries to get the tag in.  Duane Ard, our farm manager, provided the muscle and, more…

  • Thistle Hill alumni club….

    ….includes this truly international calf. The scene is Woolen, Ontario, Canada….the farm of Connie and John Moelker.  The proud mom in the back is all American from Thistle Hill…from the old Lakota 48 line…one of the most noteworthy of the Devon breed.  And the sire is from England…Traditional Devon’s Highwayman. Which brings us to this little guy….calved just two days ago.  His mom was one of a shipment of heifers we made to Canada earlier this summer.  Not the end of the story by any means.  The Moelkers plan to enlarge their Devon herd and offer Devon seedstock in Canada.