Paula Hynes: A tricky task with Papouse's first day out
Becky Hynes with Jones Chief Jay-Z, reserve champion calf at the Cork YMA calf show.
Life really has been hectic and I am looking forward to life settling down a little soon.
This week was really busy, with the Dunmanway show on Sunday and the Cork YMA qualifier on Monday evening for the National Championships.
In total we had 11 heifers competing over the two days but as I always say, hard work pays off and we had a great two days of showing. To say I am extremely proud of my three daughters and all my four-legged girls is an understatement.
Dunmanway was always a show I loved to support back in my horsey days — it has always been a great family day out and it's no different now with us showing heifers.
Becky was second in the handlers with Papouse, she had a hard job with it being Papouse's first day out. She was very nervous but Becky kept her cool and did a great job on the halter. Georgie was third in her handlers with the jersey calf as she was keeping her Holstein handling calf fresh for the qualifiers.
It was great to have Chloe back in the whites and she did a great job with Emerald Chief Sharon coming fourth in her handlers. Next in was Georgie again with Rathard Cashew, a little jersey calf, and took second in her class and going on to get reserve champion jersey.
Chloe was first back into the ring for the Holstein heifer class showing Sharon and went on to win — and Becky taking Papouse into her age class and also pulling a win out of the bag.
Papouse did settle a good bit during the day with the more she could see. It was a big learning day for her and with another bit of mileage under her belt I think we will have a lot of fun with her in the future.
Our next class, and one which I really enjoy, was the All-Ireland Calf EBI Championship. With our own herd at home, we always concentrate on EBI, so it's always nice every year after our heifers are genotyped to select one of the little ladies for this particular class. This year Rathard Lunasa Alanna was selected from our group of heifers with an EBI of 411.
She is a February-born heifer and is from the same family as Rathard Albert Alanna, who won the class in 2019 with the grandam being an EX92 cow. Georgie was delighted to be chosen as the winner and extra excited to win the cup that her sister won. It was a better day than we had anticipated.
It was straight home from Dunmanway to get the cows milked and start prepping the other heifers for the qualifiers the next evening. We had seven heifers going so there was a bit to do. We got some clipping done that evening and finished it off the next morning.
Washing the heifers started early the next morning and the jeep was packed and the girls and Pete headed off in at lunchtime to get the heifers settled and finish the prep.
I got the rest of the jobs finished at home and cows milked with Meghan before heading to the show myself. Unfortunately, I missed the first two handling classes where Georgie came second in a big class of junior handlers and Becky taking the win in the intermediate handlers, both qualifying for the nationals.
Chloe also put the whites for the third time this year — she was fourth which meant she didn’t qualify but will compete in the novice handling to give her a day out in Kilkenny.
Next up was the coloured breed class, all ages competed together in this class. We took second and third which meant as my heifers were different ages, they both qualified in their specific age class for the nationals.
The night was going well, all that was left was the heifer classes to go. Georgie was up first with our homebred intermediate calf Rathard Unix Adina where she came second, meaning she also qualified which was great as she is Georgie's handling calf as well.
The next class up was the senior calf class where we actually had two heifers, a homebred Rathard Legend Maker Adina and Jones Chief Jay-Z which we had purchased as a two-month-old calf.
It was only Jay-Z's third show but she has settled and loves the big stage, a really balanced heifer to walk and pricks her ears while chewing the cud in the show ring and she has built up a great relationship with Becky.
Kevin Smyth was on the halter with Adaline (Rathard Legend Maker Adina) as he had shown her in his showmanship class. The nerves were kicking in, it was a good strong class and the judge John McLean was doing a lot of looking and taking his time.
To my utter delight, I saw the judge point to Becky and then he pointed to Kevin, a moment to remember having first and second in such a strong class and both heifers qualified for the nationals.
Jones Chief Jay-Z went on to get reserve champion calf with Becky and Rathard Legend Maker Adina got an honourable mention in the championship. What a finish to a great night.
It suddenly dawned on me that the nationals were going to be extra busy this year with five heifers qualified, we literally couldn’t have wished for a better result. It was straight onto the hotel in Kilkenny to book the rooms and start the planning for the two-day championships.
We also had a visit from Alan Buttimer of Knockvale Farm this week to judge the CHFC herds competition. We always love having people visit the farm to show them our ladies and get their opinions on the herd.
It is our third year entering the herds competition as we only upgraded the herd to pedigree status in 2013 and now our second year classifying but the awards night is always a great social occasion and a chance to catch up with other breeders.
