- Location
- South Devon
That's why our Buttercup family died out - you needed both hands to milk one teet after 3 lactations.
South devon cattle
- Thread starter Cowslip
- Start date
Have you ever tried to hand milk a parsnip shaped teat? Truely awful, I have small hand and can't even get them round them, my second heifer i purchased had them and after milking 26 litres out one day by hand just so I could feed her her calf its something I have strongly culled for!! Unfortunately it is something that has stuck in people's minds and why many have moved away from them.
Cows 'n grass
Member
- Location
- Modbury, South Devon
I've never had anything to do with South Devons other than viewing them over the hedge and walking a few Sexton calves around the Devon county show ring when I was a kid. I always thought a parsnip shapes teat looked better for hand milking than some of my jersey heifers who have teats smaller that the last knuckle of your little finger.
Every farm around here would have milked 10 South Devons until the 50s/60s
- Location
- South Devon
- Location
- South Devon
How long have you had S.Ds ?It is the name of my first south devon. I name mine a different letter each year as I know some herds the familys have been so prolific they all have the same name
Oliveau
Member
- Location
- Indre et Loire, France
Some years ago when the Herd Book was celebrating the 100th anniversary the breed society organised a series of herd visits with several people coming from the dominions. I remember talking to an Australian who stated that what he needed was a cow that could go off into the outback and come back with a live calf.
As an aside for those that remember the anniversary celebrations, I saw the other day that Lord Falmouth had died aged 101. One of the trips was a boat up the river from Falmouth to the private landing stage at Tregothnan and it absolutely pee'd down. We all had the most enormous pasties, and I stood on the back of the boat with said Australian and the late Derrick Eustice (Bezurell herd, and great uncle of our friend George.) The Australian had a very large brimmed rain hat, but the pasties were so big that the rain ran off the edge off his hat and soaked the ends of the pasty. When we arrived at Tregothnan the rain had just stopped and Lord Falmouth was waiting to welcome us, with a big crook in his hand and a hessian sack over his shoulder. As the first person got off and shook his hand the sun came out - an unforgettable moment.
As an aside for those that remember the anniversary celebrations, I saw the other day that Lord Falmouth had died aged 101. One of the trips was a boat up the river from Falmouth to the private landing stage at Tregothnan and it absolutely pee'd down. We all had the most enormous pasties, and I stood on the back of the boat with said Australian and the late Derrick Eustice (Bezurell herd, and great uncle of our friend George.) The Australian had a very large brimmed rain hat, but the pasties were so big that the rain ran off the edge off his hat and soaked the ends of the pasty. When we arrived at Tregothnan the rain had just stopped and Lord Falmouth was waiting to welcome us, with a big crook in his hand and a hessian sack over his shoulder. As the first person got off and shook his hand the sun came out - an unforgettable moment.
- Location
- somerset
45 years ago, when they were milked, their rival breed was friesian, and their udder score wasn't a lot better, plenty had big bottle shaped tits, so it wasn't confined to devons.
perhaps the best thing about hols, is actually udder shape improvement ! When our first hol hfrs started calving in, neat tidy udders were amazing, and they lasted.
It really doesn't help, to look back to milking then. Several were milked on 3/4's, and only the 4th went partially milked out, cords that went over cows backs, to help keep the cups on, block of wood, to put under the cluster, to help keep clusters from slipping, slow cows, we had stones or lead pipe, to weigh the cluster down, to help milk out. And temperament, plenty of those old friesians, were mean, nasty old bitches, used to span a lot, rope tying there back legs together.
How much of the above, would we be prepared to do now, close to zero, l would think, but back then, it was 'normal'.
Sussex - as they used to be- would have far more in common with Rubies.Lovely cattle indeed but I think just like The Sussex (Which is another breed I have a soft spot for ) I think they've had a just a little bit of influence from that French breed whose name starts with L , ends in N and is good at jumping over hedges.
It's true that some SD breeders tried dabbling with them furrin genes 30 years ago and more, but it didn't do them any good, and other than using em as a terminal sire, there isn't much of that now.
There'd still be masses of bloodlines where it was never tried - both pedigree and commercial purebred.
The double muscling is being actively hunted out thru genetic testing.
Ironically, I believe the Sussex's are sneaking lim in.....which baffles me. If you want lims...go buy lims.
serf
Member
- Location
- warwickshire
Looking at it from the 'outside 'of the Sussex World I though that would be a good combination to have , the temperament of Sussex, the growth if lim , the milk of Sussex, ect ect , complement each other well , as opposes to the extremes of each breed !
- Location
- South Devon
My Grandfather Lewis came here lady day 1922 so I guess that just makes the herd over 100 years old.His father John bred the first animal listed in the bull section of Volume 1 (1892) - Admiral - they were listed alphabetically as no herd prefixes back then.On my mothers side , her grandfather Thomas Irish founded the Edmeston herd in 1902 and his father Robert is also mentioned a few times in Vol 1.
- Location
- South Devon
I seem to remember going to Essex to see some S.D cattle on some marshes ,on the 1988 national herd competition with the afore mentioned Derrick Eustice.
Obviously before your time
Netherfield
Member
- Location
- West Yorkshire
Dad had hundreds up in Yorkshire.
bliddy blow'ins!
Didn't realise you were connected that way to ~Edmeston.
Like our damline, I daresay yours would go back many generations prior to that.
We don't know everything that happened -cow wise- prior to arrival here 1847, but we've had farm addresses since we appear in church records 1400/1500s down around Modbury.
I notice, looking at the original herds listed when the herdbook was started, that most of those farms are now either under concrete, ploughed, or hosting black and whites. Only a handful still extant.