American Milking Devons

American Milking Devons are a rare breed that we take pride in working with on our farm. Devons are unique because they are “tri-purpose”; meaning they produce quality milk, meat, and are good working cattle. At Clair-A-Den, we have a herd of 25 Devons: some heifers, cows, bulls and steers. We have one of the largest Devon herds in the world as there are only around 2,000 registered Devons worldwide, which is one of the reasons that we are honored to be able to work with them.

The boys enjoy working with these animals and competing at shows with them as working steers. When showing working steers, you attach a team (2 steers) to a yoke. Using a variety of directions such as: haw, gee, put in, or put out you can direct your team through obstacle courses and have them to do different working tasks. This is the foundation work for having steers that can do farm work such as pulling logs or other heavy objects. The boys think it is important to use them for what they were bred to do, before tractors took over all of the farm labor.

The Michaud boys have shown their Devons at prestigious shows near and far, including showing a 2 year old to a championship at the Mid-Atlantic Regional American Milking Devon Show in Virginia. They also raised the grand champion Devon at that show in 2018, named Devon’s Gate Peach. Gabriel, one of the older sons has also shown his steers to the “Overall Teamster” title at the Tunbridge Fair. Gabriel does all the training of the young ones because the key to working with and training Devons, is a lot of patience. Once they are trained and grown up, the Michauds generally sell them as oxen. They even have a few that were in a movie!

Jeremy is also a director of the American Milking Devons Association, (AMDCA) and has done a lot of work to promote and celebrate the rare breed, as well as give his kids additional opportunities to show off their hard work.