…on a foggy morning. Both are about 18 months out of American Devon dams…but their English sires have had an impact! The heifer on the left is out of my personal favorite…R2…an almost after-thought purchase and a cow that was a trouble free producer of great calves for 15 years. This will be her last […]
…to three families who welcome Thistle Hill cows to their property. We couldn’t operate the way we do without them. Mary Schindling Perrine sent this view of her farm…our cows in the foreground…Cobbler Mountain at sunrise. Confederate raider John Mosby—the Gray Ghost—always made his getaways to Cobbler and the Union troops could never catch him. […]
TDA7, daughter of the great Tilbrook Cashtiller who is still the finest cow of any breed we’ve ever seen! We flushed Cashtiller twice in England and nine years ago TDA7 was born here along with five sisters and two brothers. TDA7, like her mama, has aged gracefully…udders still as correct as a three-year-old. Our friend […]
..Bayer, seeing the handwriting on the wall, has agreed to a ten-billion dollar out of court settlement to get rid of the lawsuits against its Roundup weed killer. Juries haven’t accepted the various company-friendly investigations that cleared Roundup (aka: glysophate) of any connection with the cancer deaths of its users. Ten-billion sounds like a lot […]
…and a recent graduate…Equinox. He’s a combination of our top English lines. Equinox is not quite two years old and at 900 pounds has a lot of growth yet to come. But he went right to work covering the herd at Spring Pastures farm in Maryland. The Equinox pedigree includes such top names as Falcon, […]
…China will protect us! The United States and China are wrapping up the agriculture portion of their trade talks and the two countries have agreed to open their markets to chickens. China has a history of dumping its contaminated food products here…well other things too, including toys. Our only protection is going to be an […]
…and a stubborn little plant! The Canadian Thistle dominated our pastures 20 years ago…along with Rosa multiflora. It’s taken a long time (and many grandchildren serving hard labor) to get both weeds to manageable proportions. We simply keep cutting them to ground level and eventually the plant gets the message and quits trying. The multiflora […]
…over the American part of our herd anyway. He is now in his third year and making stunning growth…300 pounds and 2.5 more inches scrotal growth…in recent months. King David is the result of crossing one of our pure English bulls with an American cow. The idea was to mate the best to the best…hoping […]
It’s been some years now since Michael Pollin set the beef industry on its ear with his article in the New York Times expanded into the book The Omnivores Dilemna. Speaking in England…Pollin pulls back the curtain on the real story behind McDonalds French fries…or as they’re called over there…chips! David
…it may look like resting and that’s what graziers call it…but this grass is hard at work! The trick in grazing isn’t how much grass the cows eat…but how much they leave. Ideally we like them to bite off about a third…and trample a third…and leave the rest for regrowth. That’s what’s happening here. The […]