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A winning combination…
…of the outstanding Rotokawa 982 and our awesome X2a! 4 is a healthy 65-pound bull calf…an ai son of 982. This sire was an unsung member of Ken McDowalls battery of great bulls. Church came up with some of his hard to find semen not long ago. We chose X2a whose pedigree goes way back among American Devon. And the 2-line has been very good to Thistle Hill…producing a string of outstanding bulls and heifers. David
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The first bull calf…
…of the year weighs exactly 70 pounds. And though mom is a heifer she has him well-disciplined. No easy task with a rambunctious little bull calf! The sire of these early calves is TDA 35…an all English bull by Falcon out of Norah. Mom is a good example of crossing our American herd with an English import. In this case grandma is R2…a calf we spotted at Lakota Ranch 15 years ago…and it paid off for us and farms throughout the East. The English grandsire was a bull we nicknamed Handsome Ransom and, while early, this guy is well-proportioned just like grandpa. Never was good at fractions but I guess…
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Back in the bull pen…
…and oblivious to his achievements in the pasture…is TDA35. This young bull has sired this year’s heifer candidates. The son of Goldings Norah by Ashott Barton Falcon..TDA 35 has an outstanding background on paper. This is his first real test. David
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Let the calving begin…
…and we start with our first-calf heifers. F21 is a Bribery embryo daughter and this is first born…a little heifer by a young Thistle Hill bull out of Goldings Norah. In fact this is a combination of the herds of many of our great English partners…Cutcombe, Ashott Barton and Goldings. It’s great fun now that our English herd is maturing to begin to paint our own history with them at Thistle Hill! Only 26 more calves to go! David