“Welcome, Welcome Englishmen”….

…were the words the Indian Samoset shouted to greet the Pilgrims when they arrived in the New World.  Unfortunately, Devon came on the next boat and missed that historic moment.

But today is a kind of historic moment for Thistle Hill Farm.  We’re saying “welcome Englishmen”…bulls and heifers….to our shores.  Some time ago, on one of several scouting expeditions to England, we came upon a cow that was the most beautiful Devon we had ever seen.  Small wonder; turned out she was the great English champion Tilbrook Cashtiller.

With two American friends, John Forelle of New York and Bill Walker of South Carolina, we determined that we had to bring Cashtiller genetics to the United States.  So working with Cashtiller’s breeder, Gavin Hunter, we flushed her to a bull that was another English champion, Cutcombe Jaunty.

The fertilized eggs were frozen and brought here…implanted in recipient cows…and now the first calves are being born.  The calving isn’t complete, but so far we have an even split of bulls and heifers and expect 9 calves in all.  And if these youngsters turn out as well as we hope, we have more embryos standing by.

There’s lots more to this story.  But we wanted to let you know about an exciting day for us here at Thistle Hill.