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Thistle Hill alumni club….porcine chapter…
….Thistle Hill sows are smarter than your average pig! Consider exhibit 1: These two sows had their litters minutes apart….and instead of remaining on opposite ends of the barn, they’ve combined their “resources”. All the babies nurse on row on one sow and then move to the other sow. Meanwhile, the first sow flops over and then the piglets move back to the other sow and row. It seems to me this is going to weed out the less hardy pretty quickly, but then I have never seen this before….and more experienced “pig people” are saying it’s something new to them as well. Incidentally, we farmed out our sows to…
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Thistle Hill Alumni Club….
….when a Thistle Hill cow and Thistle Hill bull get together on “foreign soil”…good things happen! In this case, Elim Springs Rojo. Owner Rich Hamilton sends us this picture of Rojo, the son of our Watson and Izzie. Izzie left here bred and delivered at the Hamilston’s Elim Springs farm in southern Virginia. Rojo is now four years old. The same line that produced Rojo is still active at Thistle Hill, impressive animals and long-lived! Not incidentally, Izzie comes from the same embryo flush that produced Thistle Hill Magic, another great bull.
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The Thistle Hill Alumni Club….
….celebrates the 13th birthday of its charter member! Thistle Hill Goldie celebrated the day at his home in Bugtussle, Kentucky. Eric Smith reports Goldie is still going strong after all these years. We’re often asked what’s the useful life of a bull and we normally say 10 to 12 years. Looks like we’re going to recognize the “Goldie Rule”. Happy Birthday, Goldie…and many more! This reminds me that one of the big advantages of a grass fed bull is longevity….along with potency. Grass fed bulls do have higher semen counts. Incidentally, “Bugtussle” is not as unusual a name for a town (and farm) as you might think. There’s also a Bugtussle,…
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Feeling down….unappreciated….
….we’re reminded by Bob Cain that there’s always……
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Wooz’ favorite bull….
….currently away on a business trip. He’s Traditional Devon’s™ Highwayman…one of our pure, traditional English bulls working with partner Bill Walker’s herd in South Carolina. Some of the “experts” consider this Frame One bull too small but not the lack of air between the stomach and the ground. Highwayman is all meat…easy to maintain and easy on the pasture. Lots of his first calves are on the ground here at Thistle Hill. Incidentally, that’s a Traditional Devon™ heifer in the background….another showpiece!
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The icing on the cake….
….we’re still feeding a little hay though warm temps have been greening up the pastures. That’s one of our Senepols in the foreground—always a chow-hound—and Devon in the back. We “tested” Senepol years ago and, while we like them a lot, decided Devon would do better in our environment. One of the things we got right but we’ve kept the Senepol and use them in crosses for beef. The picture is by Gisela Volkert, taken on a recent visit from Germany.