Just a quick tour…

…this past weekend.  (Warning: no pigs; they’re off at freezer camp)

First stop the shipping pen where this four-year old bull is waiting for his ride to a commercial operation in southwest Virginia.  Clark Family farms have been good friends and customers for a number of years.

The Clarks also selected one of our young English bulls with Tilbrook Cashtiller genetics.  For three years running Cash’s sons topped the English national sales.

At one of our auxiliary farms we checked the progress of some of our other yearlings…three pure English calves and their dams.  In recent years we’ve found it best to separate the bull and heifers calves at about six months…just to avoid unwanted premature pregnancies.  It permits us to get an extra few months still on mother’s milk which we think is important for the calves…both physically and emotionally.

Just around the corner at Slainte Farm, our bred heifers are being spoiled by Mary Perrine.  We are particularly pleased with some of our traditional English ladies and even by Devon standards we find that a stay with Mary makes them particularly docile.

Back at the farm’s bull pasture, THF Prince is now two-years old and a good example of our English genetics. His dam was an Ashott Barton Tulip daughter and the sire England’s champion Cutcombe Jaunty..

Next stop the main herd in pasture 4C, the young heifers still on their dams.  Church is justifiably proud of what he’s accomplished at Thistle Hill and we reviewed his plans for balancing his stewardship of the farm with his new major responsibility…attending Cornell veterinary school…in the fall.

But this is good problem to have…and parents Curt and Carolyn and uncle Church are well-experienced to take over the herd.  I’ll continue as “kibitzers-in-chief”!

David