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King of the hill…
…all English but made in the US! Our herd bull Essington…the result of a mating of Brian Drake’s Buttercup and Shiamala Comer’s Falcon…two leading English herds paired here thanks to embryo transplants. Essington is six years old. David
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Two young bulls…
…pictured at just over a year old…that we held back to monitor development. H242 (nearer the camera) and H243 were chosen to grow out here at Thistle Hill…selected from a class of about a dozen bulls. H242 in the foreground doing well in the early stages. We’re particularly pleased with his heart girth. He and his herdmate, H243, were both sired by a pure English bull in our inventory, Essington. H243 is descended from the Champson Tulip line, one of the most renowned in England. Tulip has been a little elusive for us so we are keeping an eye on this young bull. David
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Our cows…
…are built around the great English cow Tilbrook Cashtiller. She won three consecutive national grand championships and a host of ribbons and silver. And to top it off three of her sons were the top selling bulls in the annual Devon breeders sale. We’re indebted to Tibrook’s Gavin Hunter…who again today is serving as president of the British Society …for permitting us to flush Cash twice! TDA 7 was out of that first flush 12 years ago and not showing her age. Her sire was another British champion, Cutcombe Jaunty. Cashtiller is gone now but we have several of her daughters and granddaughters and other descendants in our herd…and some…
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Our bulls…
…have become an increasingly important part of our operation…not only joining herds from Canada to Louisiana but as leased sires to smaller farms that can’t justify a full-time bull. Right now we have eight bulls at work for Thistle Hill…and a dozen more in the development stage. Our bull pen is still headed by Highwayman, sired by the English bull Millennium Falcon. The dam was from the Goldings herd of the legendary cattleman Ivan Rowe. Ivan gave us the pick of his herd and smiled a rare smile when we selected Norah. It was the only pedigree that he had carried in his pocket. Ivan judged many breeds in his…
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Making history…
…is something of a habit at Thistle Hill. We’re always trying new ideas…ways to improve the quality of our operation and the cows we produce. In that pursuit we were particularly excited when Church was able to negotiate the purchase of a canister of scores of straws of semen from longtime Devon breeders Don and Heather Minto in Jamestown, Rhode Island. Among the straws were collections from almost all the top Rotokawa bulls plus some of the legendary sires in Devon history. Church planned the first major use from the cache to take place during his Christmas break from Cornell Veterinary school. Because our vet’s clinic is close to Thistle…
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Yes I have favorites…
…and TDA 7 has been mine for the past 10 years! And this morning she further endeared herself by presenting us with a perfect 64-pound heifer. Somehow 7 has maintained her girlish figure (and udder) all these years. And yes 7 is a Cashtiller daughter…who may well be the best Devon cow in history. Her bull calves topped the British sales three years running…just as she earlier had won three Grand Championships in national shows. And her breeder, Gavin Hunter, is once again serving as the president of the British Society. And to share the credit, the sire of this heifer is Essington…named for the Brian Drake farm where this…
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Home again…
…are three yearling bulls who were at summer camp…actually the pasture owned by neighbors, the Rowland’s. Truthfully I’m not sure which is which….but these are sons of some great English herd genetics such as Champson, Essington Park and Ashott Barton. We take our young cows away for the summer to ease the pressure on our grass. That also means more here in our stockpile and easier to supplement with hay. David
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The future…
…is in good hands! Two yearling bulls we have high hopes for. In the background is one of the first calves from our herd bull Essington. He’s from a premier English herd that was the work for many decades of Brian Drake…a herd that now sadly belongs to history. In the foreground is the first American descendant of another historic English line, Champson. He’s by Champson Defender. Grandson Church came up with some Champson semen at UK Sires that, frankly, didn’t look very promising but decided to try it. He hit on the very first attempt and so we now have three pure, traditional English bloodlines on our Virginia pastures.…
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Waiting in the bullpen…
…one of our herd bulls, THF Essington. He’s five years old now and has served as our primary sire for the past two years. Essington’s dam was the daughter Brian Drake’s great English cow, Buttercup. The sire was our THF Falcon, who traces back to the Ashott Barton herd in Devon. Thanks to the mating of these two great lines in Essington, his progeny will be the mainstay of our herd for years to come. A commercial cattleman in Virginia compares Essington favorably to Rotokawa 688! Since 688 in our view is one of the top bulls in Devon history, we appreciate the compliment. Here’s a picture so you can…
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Free at last…
…with everyone in the family safely vaccinated, I was finally able to escape my senior residence for the first time in almost exactly a year. Naturally it was this year’s calf crop that interested me most. They’re five months old now and a rewarding bunch of prospects. Church’s favorite is THF 3…the daughter of TDA Cashtiller 4 and our Essington bull. She’s the latest in our line of pure traditional English calves. I was taken by this Bribery heifer..a combination of four great English herds. She’s two-years old…and perhaps in-calf. And she was the last mating Wooz and Church selected on our final visit to England. We were in agreement…