Paula Hynes: Taking the long road to Stoneleigh
Becky Hynes with show judge Sam Wake at South West HYB calf show in Sedgemoor.
A brief weather window at the beginning of last week allowed us to mow our third-cut red clover crop.
Mowing at midday on Monday, the crop was raked on Tuesday evening and baled on Wednesday morning yielding over seven bales to the acre.
I was amazed at how fast the crop recovers and as the contractor was spreading slurry on the fields Thursday morning the red clover was already shooting leaf. If the slurry spreading was delayed a few days, the tyres on the tanker would only damage the reemerging plant. We tested our early silage bales and pit with the second cut red clover bales coming in at 18% protein.
That will greatly help reduce winter feeding costs and with the sunshine finally returning we should get a fourth cut from the red clover.
With Becky over-busy preparing for the All-Britain qualifier, we had our trip planned to go and watch her compete however with our relief milker out of action it looked like we would be watching from home and simply waiting for a WhatsApp to come through.
Thankfully, Colleen Burchill stepped in at the last minute to milk the cows for us. Colleen is super around the cows and, although she wasn’t familiar with our milking parlour, the farm ran simply as if she had been milking here all season. It is always relaxing to leave the farm in capable hands.
I, Pete, and Georgie took a late-night sailing to Pembroke followed by a three-hour drive to Sedgemoor Auction Centre in Somerset where the Holstein South West HYB qualifier was taking place. Arriving at the show centre at 4.30am, there was time for a quick nap before Molly and Becky arrived with the heifers shortly after 6am. Five hours of prep work later and the heifers were ready for the ring as the first class kicked of at 11am.
Qualifying shows can be real pressure ensuring you reach the finals — while first and second place qualify for the IHFA YMA finals in Ireland, only first place qualifies at the HYB shows in the UK so there is no margin for error.
Becky's Intermediate Showmanship class was the third class of the day and it was a huge relief to see judge Sam Wake place Becky at the top of the line and hand over the red rosette. Magic is a big powerful heifer now at 18 months of age and it is a challenge to use a heifer that big in the showmanship class.
Time to move on to the heifer classes and Becky was also handling two heifers for Panda Holsteins, Panda o Krispy Crème Red was a comfortable winner of the December heifer class and while it was Panda Rihanna RC's first show, Becky had her well-tuned taking second place in the March class to her maternal sister Panda Rita Ora RC.
Next up was Magic and she was a comfortable winner of the Senior Red and White Heifer class. Last before the championship was the pairs, heifer class. Becky paired up with Jack Westwood to take Rihanna and Rita into the show ring, what a sight to behold seeing 32 heifers enter the show ring.
With Rihanna and Rita being the youngest two heifers in the ring, it was a fantastic achievement for Becky and Jack to have their pair tapped out as honourable mention.
With Becky having Magic through to the main heifer championship along with Panda Holsteins having a further three heifers through, it was a dash for Georgie to change into show whites and take up the halter on a heifer she had never shown before but all the work with different heifers at home stood to her as she showed Krispy to perfection and a great moment for her to experience a UK show ring.
Sam Wake pulled six heifers for his final championship lineup and Magic was still in contention.
Eventually, Sam tapped out Magic as his Honorable Mention.
It seems an eternity since we purchased Magic and she truly has been magic since, remaining unbeaten in her class all season.
The dream was always that Becky might qualify for the All Britain All Breeds calf show. Job done at Sedgemoor with both heifer and handler qualified for the finals at Stoneleigh in early October.
A celebratory barbecue followed at Panda Holsteins before the three of us headed for the return journey to Pembroke and home from there with a lot of cows close to calving at home.
Becky has remained in the UK where she is busy preparing cows with Molly for UK Dairy Day. It will be a new challenge for her as she takes up the halter on a couple of milkers for one of the UK premier one-day shows.
Life always presents opportunities.
The choice one has is to let those opportunities pass or grab them with both hands and follow one's dreams. In our case, it is a balancing act as we firmly believe Becky must embrace the opportunities that lie ahead.
2023 has been a year of dreams come true for her. While it is not ideal missing school we are very grateful to her teachers in Coachford College who are emailing her work and putting school work on Google Classroom so as she can keep up in the short term. And no doubt she will be armed with a heart and head full of life experiences when she gets back to the classroom.
