![\"Defender\"](\"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Defender-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe newest addition to our team of bulls is Defender, son of the great bull Champson Defender out of Thistle Hill Bribery.\u00a0 With the decline in the numbers of absolutely pure English Devon it has taken many years to find a male line to put into rotation in our herd.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Church settled on Defender a few years ago and now he\u2019s moving into the field test stage.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
David<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2026have become an increasingly important part of our operation\u2026not only joining herds from Canada to Louisiana but as leased sires to smaller farms that can\u2019t justify a full-time bull. Right now we have eight bulls at work for Thistle Hill\u2026and a dozen more in the development stage.\u00a0 Our bull pen is still headed by Highwayman, sired by the English bull Millennium Falcon.\u00a0 The dam was from the Goldings herd of the legendary cattleman Ivan Rowe.\u00a0 Ivan gave us the pick of his herd and smiled a rare smile when we selected Norah.\u00a0 It was the only pedigree that he had carried in his pocket.\u00a0 Ivan judged many breeds in his 60 years as a cattleman.\u00a0 When he pronounced an animal bullet proof you knew he had found it to have perfect conformity\u00a0 and an impeccable pedigree! TDA 35 is a full brother of Highwayman.\u00a0 The sire of both in the same flush was an exceptional bull, Millennium Falcon. Millennium sons were the mainstays of many of the great English Devon herds we visited.\u00a0 And he originated in Margaret Elliott\u2019s Cutcombe herd.\u00a0 As a judge Ivan Rowe pronounced Millennium top of the show and years later purchased his son Falcon.\u00a0 And that\u2019s where we collected him in Cornwall and brought his genetics to the states 12 years ago. Another legendary breeder in English Devon circles was Brian Drake, who has now retired.\u00a0 Brian was a frequent judge in cattle shows, too, and his Essington Park herd was a must-stop for touring cattlemen. Our bull Essington is out Brian\u2019s Buttercup by that bull his colleague Ivan judged best in show, Ashott Barton Millennium Falcon.\u00a0 Both Brian and Ivan were unashamedly old fashioned and stood athwart the English Devon stampede to \u201cmodernize\u201d, which actually meant Ross-breeding with French Salers. Joining our group of senior bulls is Thistle Hill Prince.\u00a0 He\u2019s the son of a Tulip cow\u2026and in England you\u2019re not considered serious if you don\u2019t have a Tulip!\u00a0 They all trace back to the original Champson herd.\u00a0 The sire is Jaunty\u2026the most famous product of Margaret Elliott\u2019s Cutcombe herd.\u00a0 Margaret has been generous with her time and counsel, as important in the development of our herd as Ken McDowell, Ivan Rowe, Gavin Hunter, Gearld Fry, and the Enghs. The newest addition to our team of bulls is Defender, son of the great bull Champson Defender out of Thistle Hill Bribery.\u00a0 With the decline in the numbers of absolutely pure English Devon it has taken many years to find a male line to put into rotation in our herd. Church settled on Defender a few years ago and now he\u2019s moving into the field test stage. David<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,139,17,86,164,158,176,13,51,148,56,175,97,79,49,143,74,172,57,146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ashott-barton","category-bribery","category-bulls","category-buttercup","category-champson","category-church","category-cutcombe","category-david","category-engh","category-essington","category-fry","category-goldings","category-highwayman","category-hunter","category-mcdowall","category-norah","category-rowe","category-tda35","category-thistle-hill-falcon","category-thistle-hill-farm"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7089"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7100,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7089\/revisions\/7100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Highwayman\"](\"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Highwayman.jpg\")
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