Ashott Barton

The Devons who are traditional to our location have become our primary focus, however we do have some other stock including a small herd of Dexters and a few sheep.

Eight years of our Devon Cattle at Ashott Barton
The Devon herd started with twelve cows and a Stock Bull in September 2000. Herd now has 78 animals. Our wonderful herd sire Cutcombe Millennium has the distinction of being awarded Devon Cattle breeders Society Stock Bull of the year award twice in this time. We bought the best in 2000 when we bought Millennium from Margaret Elliot and cows from William Dart.

The Lord of all he surveys; Cutcombe Millennium at Ashott Barton
Taken late summer 2004 after he was made Stock bull of the year

Roberta Edgar’s Hercules came to us in May and will remain in the herd for the foreseeable future. So I still have the two bull problem but my determination to avoid bulls with any Saler blood or polled lines makes this inevitable.

Millennium ‘s cows now have Essington Best man as herd sire, while all of Millennium’s Daughters out of the Bribery and Tulip cows are with Hercules. This is so that I don ’t go over board on line breeding. Boy is a “Tulip” bull and Mel ’s grandson, too close, in my view to breed with my tulip and Bribery cows.

According to Don Elliot you can get a genius or an idiot by line breeding!

Not Just Livestock Units – The loss of Millennium has led to much realigning within the herd. It has taken the whole summer for his old cows to adjust to Boy(Esssington Best Man) while the young cows, Millenniums daughters were unaffected. The old girls have taken a back seat and the leader is now Cowslip, daughter of Mel. Her mother was one of the Matriarchs of the herd. Her close associate is Dairymaid. This is a mirror of what happened with their mothers. I find the herd behavior fascinating and wonderful to observe. Knowing the way the cows fit together informs my decisions about the management better and creates less stress for them. Paying attention to how the cows tick simply makes my life with them easier and so much more rewarding than just pushing them around, as so many live stock units.