It was one of those spectacular summer nights that you wish for – the sun was out, it wasn’t too hot, your friends were sitting around eating BBQ chicken and talking about cows! What a perfect evening for the New England Holstein Convention “Christmas in July” Tag Sale, hosted by Richard Caverly and Bev Donovan at their farm in Benton, Maine.

Richard & Bev’s Deer Hill Farm/Wyman Dairy was beautifully decorated for Christmas and featured the new barn that their World Dairy Expo Grand Champion Sweet Pepper Black Francesca (2E-94 by Blackaddar Bonnie Brae) helped to build. The Tag Sale featured a dozen elite pedigreed animals, including offpsring from Tri-Day Ashlyn (2E-96 GMD-DOM), VT-Pond-View Drhm Lasso (EX-92), Pavue Mad BB Leeanne (3E-94), Brigeen Convincer Rhonda (2E-95 GMD-DOM), Strout Durham Fig (2E-93), Muranda BWM Larel-ET BL TV (2E-95 GMD-DOM), Brigeen Aer Gwyneth (2E-93 GMD-DOM), and Androscoggin Rub Sabrina-ET RC (2E-91). The outstanding group of consignments was assembled by Jim Strout, Chris Kimball and Jamie Strout.

Following are scenes from the picnic and sale. Watch for more blog postings later this weekend from my farm stops in Maine! Thanks to all for their tremendous hospitality, and be sure to follow www.nesholsteins.com for the latest information on New England events!

Picnic host Richard Caverly and Steve Briggs

Christmas in July! Richard & Bev’s decorations were everywhere, and here, the Christmas Tree has some great presents underneath, including some Performance Products, a beautiful milk can, and even the latest issue of HolsteinWorld!

A simply stunning pack barn for the cows and heifers could also be named “The House that Francesca built!”

Dennis Conant and Bob Wilson

Bev’s landscaping!

Pete Waterman and his girlfriend Vicki catch up with John Nutting.

Dinner is served!

Can we keep her dad? Jaydn Kimball snuggles up to St-Jacob Atwood Abril-ET.

Bev, Richard and Richard’s brother take a break after getting everything ready for tonight’s party.

New England Holstein Association President Chris Hannan

A proud grandpa! Mike Wilson and his granddaughter Michaela Davis, one of the famed Wilsondale Generation III.

Jim Strout discusses the finer points of Christmas decorating with Marion and Martha Seifert

14 years of age and still going strong! The dam of Francesca

Three’s company! The Briggs sisters – Kate, Vivian and Betsy

Greg Hussey and Matt Davis catch up

Jay Roebuck is currently getting together a group of 22 bulls that are being sent to an A.I. center in Russia next month. According to Russian regulations, their vets must be present from day one of the quarantine process, so the New England picnic had an international flair this year!

The view of Richard & Bev’s barn from further up Wyman Road

The milking area

Stay tuned for more from Maine later this weekend!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2012 at 7:13 pm by kknutsen and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.