03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Paula Hynes: A weekend of wins, heifers and hard graft
Our hectic weekend began with our three milkers leaving early for the Charleville show — Kasey, Kali and Acclaim. Competition is always top-class at Charleville and this year one of the judges was newly elected Holstein UK president, Mark Logan from Northern Ireland.
Mark has a wealth of knowledge and formerly managed the Clandeboye Estate herd prior to his retirement last year, and has always been a phenomenal supporter of the younger generation and breeders, offering great words of encouragement.
With a packed schedule ahead for the year, it was very fitting to have the president down judging the very best of cows in Cork.
With all our young heifers at home, Daniel and Eimer Curtin kindly provided showmanship heifers, as Becky had clipped for them during the week. Georgie stood top of the line in the junior showmanship and Becky claimed the red rosette in the senior showmanship.
Our Jersey cows were next to show and Kali won what was a very competitive Jersey heifer in milk class. Kasey was the youngest cow in the senior Jersey class. She has really developed this year and won the class before claiming her third Jersey championship of the year from three outings.
Acclaim was entered in the Kerry Dairy Ireland All-Ireland junior cow class, which was the biggest class of the day for Holstein cows. She finished second to Paul Murphy's cow, and Mark truly liked the pair, as Paul went on to take the Holstein championship, with Acclaim taking honourable mention.
A very successful outing for us, and it was all hands-on-deck when we arrived home as Pauric and Becky began clipping some of the heifers for the Cork YMA calf show. With 10 heifers entered, Sunday was spent clipping as well.
Unfortunately, Aurora had some swelling on her hock and while she was clipped, we decided to leave her at home, but we were still happy with the show team, as eight out of the nine were homebred heifers carrying the Rathard prefix.
The Cork YMA calf show is a qualifier for the YMA National Finals in Kilkenny in late July.
With over 70 heifers entered, it was going to be a highly competitive show. Jane Steel travelled over from the UK to officiate as the judge — a highly accomplished judge, who will judge the colourbreed showmanship classes at the All Breeds All Britain calf show this year. She also photographs the very best of cows both on farm and at shows.
The evening kicked off with both Georgie and Becky qualifying in their showmanship classes. Moving on to the heifer classes, months of work have been put in to ensuring the heifers look their very best.
Our Jerseys were first into the ring with Khaleesi and Kalani standing first and second in the colourbreed class. They are full sisters sired by Avonlea Chocochip. This completed a successful weekend for Kasey, as she is the dam of both heifers.
Aisling Murphy finished fourth in the class with Kaira, which was a super result for her first time in the showring. Becky was kept busy for the evening and led our November-born Sidekick Acclaim to win the intermediate calf class before taking the top spot again in the senior calf class with our Sidekick Jagerbomb heifer and completed a hat-trick, winning the summer calf class with our red and white Holstein heifer named Rouge, with Emilie claiming second place with our Bullseye Alanna heifer.
Alanna had a super season last year, winning her qualifier and standing second at both Nationals and the Winter Fair.
The highlight of the night had to be the fancy dress class. A huge effort was made by club members of all ages — from Yellowstone theme, Alice in Dairyland, Where is Wally — and huge credit to Conor Lehane, who seemed to be a mixture of gym tutu and '80s disco, and went the extra mile by completing the whole class on his knees and received an honourable mention from the judge.
Georgie won the fancy dress with her Willy Wonka theme, and her calf dressed up as the Kalani Bar.
The showmanship championship saw Sarah Shannon being tapped out as champion handler, with Becky taking reserve and Georgie tapped out as honourable mention. The heifer championship was hotly contested, with Gordon and Jennifer Kingston's Bullseye heifer selected as champion, Jagerbomb claiming reserve and the Kirbys' January calf as honourable mention.
A great finish to a top-class weekend of showing, where we also scooped the premier exhibitor award and the premier breeder award at the calf show. Pauric Colman has been working with us at the bigger shows since December last year at the RUAS Winter Fair.
He did an outstanding job of turning out all the animals with Becky. Competing at that level takes a huge team effort, so it is always very rewarding for the entire team when the animals are successful. Pauric takes great care of them, and the job is only ever complete when every animal arrives home safely. There is a job to do at the shows — everyone works together, sharing advice on each animal — and we have some great laughs to keep the spirits up when people start getting tired.
A hectic show life makes for a hectic farm life, as there is always work to catch up on. Deasys mowed haylage for us on Tuesday morning, and they were out in force with the balers and trailers to ensure we have another 200 bales of Wrap-It-Pink haylage stacked in the yard.
We plan to mow more surplus bales over the next few days, and second-cut silage is also on our minds as we try to fit that into the schedule later in the month, one eye on the weather forecast and the other eye on the show diary.
The show whites are washed and ready for Dunmanway Show on Sunday, as we take a few young heifers, and I am looking forward to having a more relaxed show where I have more time to chat to people.
I can honestly say I am humbled by all the people who read my column and take the time to call up and say hi at the shows. It is lovely to introduce the show team to you all in person, and with many adventures over the next month, I am looking forward to keeping you all updated.
