Paula Hynes: Georgie sparkles in New Forest

Georgie got  her very first showmanship championship with  Sparkles thanks to dairy judge Blaise Tomlinson at the New Forest show.

Those of you who are weekly readers of my column will know myself and Pete celebrated our 30-year anniversary recently and he decided to surprise me with something that sparkles. I know, you are all thinking it was an amazing piece of jewellery.

Well, he knows me a little better than that but what he got me was even more special and a little on the rare side. My anniversary present was a half share in the most beautiful red and white Holstein heifer named Panda Sparkles of Gold (Red). She is a December 2023-born heifer from an outstanding cow family with UK Dairy Day and All Britain Champions in her pedigree. 

The reason she is a little bit rare is because she is sired by Walnutlawn Sidekick and he doesn’t have too many red and white daughters around the world but he certainly does sire top-class cows and outstanding show winners. 

Sparkles had yet to see a show ring so the main reason myself and Georgie went to the UK this week was to meet Sparkles and go to her first show with her where Georgie was taking up the halter.

New Forest and Hampshire show is a massive show, it is like a three-day version of the Tullamore Show. Vast amounts of trade stands, entertainment, carriage driving, show jumping and show classes for every farm animal you could think of. 

Day one

It was a three-hour drive down to the show on Monday from Devon and as we stepped out of the jeep, we were hit with a wall of heat from temperatures of 30 Celsius and above. The heifers were quickly washed down to cool them, beds were prepared and fans set up to ensure the heifers were comfortable and cool. 

Georgie got her first chance to work with Sparkles as the sun set and temperatures were a little cooler, it was straight to bed after that as show classes began at 8.30am the following morning. Breakfast eaten, G in her show whites and Sparkles toplined, the duo made their way into a packed show ring for the December/January heifer class.

With a watchful eye from judge Blaise Tomlinson they were pulled in first place where they remained to win the class. A quick photo and it was straight back into the cooler cattle tent where we waited for the championship to be called. 

I don’t think I've ever seen so many heifers in a junior dairy championship and as they lined the centre of the ring, one last glance from the judge, the atmosphere intensified and finally Sparkles was tapped out champion. A truly amazing start to this special heifer show career but her day wasn’t over yet as she still had to accompany Georgie into the Junior Showmanship class.

Georgie got  her very first showmanship championship with  Sparkles thanks to dairy judge Blaise Tomlinson at the New Forest show.

The showmanship class was even bigger than the heifer class but Georgie stayed cool on the halter, even though she is only 10 she is well used to showing different heifers and can adapt to how they need to be shown. She was back in the winning spot, collecting her second silver cup of the day. 

All that was left was to sit in the shade watching the other showmanship classes and wait for the showmanship championship which was going to be a tough task for her as the older classes included handlers who had been on the British team attending European Young Breeders in Belgium. 

As all the top handlers lined up for the showmanship championship, Georgie was eventually high-fived from the judge and she had her very first showmanship championship in the bag, I haven’t seen her cry with joy for over two years in the showring but cry she did as she knew well what she had just achieved in what was a day we will never forget, two championships, three cups and a well-earned rest and celebration for the new partnership.

Rest of the show

Wednesday was a rest day at the show, a chance for us to walk around and see so many other competitions, drink iced latte before preparing for Thursday classes which, although not as intense, are still a chance for Georgie to practice with Sparkles in competition. 

The pair made it a clean sweep as they again won the heifer class and showmanship class to add to their tally a fourth silver cup before we started the three-hour journey back to Devon for a good night's sleep in preparation for our trip back home. 

Georgie won’t see Sparkles again until the All Britain qualifier at the end of August but it’s safe to say they've built up a formidable partnership together. Not only is my anniversary present rare, but she has also created memories that will last a lifetime, hopefully she will have a little more success in the show ring before she is flushed for embryos early next year which will give me the opportunity to have some baby Sparkles at home on our farm.

Back home

Unfortunately, Pete couldn’t travel to the UK with us as he knew the farm would be busy and as I had left home, second cut silage was being mowed so not alone had he the usual jobs to think of, a silage crew dinner was also on his to do list. 

CCS contracting got the job done with great efficiency in superb weather conditions, thankfully Pete didn’t cause any outbreak of food poisoning, and the silage crew has since been busy around the parish while the weather remained fine. They all rallied around to give Pete a hand covering the silage pit as they knew he was short-staffed. 

With one contracting crew having left the farm, Deasys were drafted in to cut and bale our first crop haylage. We also find haylage can be really handy as it helps keep a fill on dry cows over the winter and it is far better feed for young stock and they seem to perform a lot better on it over the winter. The crew worked late into the night hauling bales with Pete unloading trailers and stacking what turned out to be over 260 bales.

It is a delight to return home to add to a rather full trophy cabinet after a successful show in the UK, but it is an even bigger relief to see the yard full to the brim with winter fodder knowing we will have plenty to keep all the hungry mouths fed. We will take another cut of our red clover swards which will add some more bales to our reserves, but before that preparations are in full swing getting the team ready for the Tullamore show.