Paula Hynes: A Royal finish to our show season
The Holstein Junior Championship was won by Peter Hynes from Cork. Becky Hynes is pictured with Ann Armstrong, Senior Agribusiness Manager, Danske Bank, Portadown. Picture: Kevin McAuley, McAuley Multimedia
Santa arrived early for us this year in the form of Mike Duckett, who was the dairy judge at the Royal Ulster Winter Fair in Belfast.
Mike is a globally renowned Holstein breeder from Wisconsin who has shown no less than three supreme champions at World Dairy Expo and won more than 90 All-American Awards.
Our trip north began early on Tuesday morning with our two-year-old heifer milked and rested before we loaded the three heifers at 7am for a six-hour drive to Balmoral Park.
Becky had all the heifers clipped on Monday. Arriving at the show, it was a quick wash for all the heifers before getting them stalled and back grubbing to ensure they would be rested and filled for showing on Thursday.
Wednesday was a rest day but with all heifers being washed twice daily along with our dairy line to be decorated, the rest was simply being allotted to the bovines, a long afternoon stroll with all three of them before sunset to ensure they were not stiff after the journey.
The Royal Ulster Agricultural Society facilities are superb for the show - a massive barn for all the dairy lines, parlours in a separate adjoining shed along with wash bays and hot water available 24 hours a day, absolute cow comfort.
With show day upon us it was a 4am start, one last wash for the heifers, constant feeding to ensure they had a good fill.
Richard Jones was prepping for us again, he is a huge part of the team, a fountain of knowledge and above all, he keeps spirits up when tiredness is setting in, his level of expertise ensures the heifers are absolute perfection for the show ring and Becky has learnt so much from him this year.
Georgie was first into the ring at 9am for the junior showmanship class with Rathard Unix Adina, Mike Duckett was eagle-eyed, testing the handlers to ensure they knew their trade, eventually placing Georgie second so we were off to a good start. Becky was next in for the Intermediate Showmanship, winning her class in style.
It was a tremendous finish to the season for her with a clean sweep in the Intermediate showmanship at all five major shows, including becoming National Champion.
With the showmanship complete, next up was heifer classes. Our September 2022 born heifer Jones Chief Jay Z went straight to the top in a very strong class, Jay Z was bred by Gary and Izzy Jones, two people who have given Becky a huge amount of knowledge and confidence over the last 12 months.
The judge commented that Jay Z was sharp, clean through her dairyness and tracked up on a great set of feet and legs, he certainly did like her as she went on to take Reserve Junior Champion and then Reserve Junior Interbreed Champion.
She is a heifer that just gets better and better, absolutely loves the show ring and big shows; she's one we will be really excited to see calved down next autumn, hopefully, she will have a big future, from the Jasmine cow family which has been really successful on the big stage.
Could this Winter Fair get any better, as Pete and Georgie walked Jay Z back to her bed, the RUAS president Christine Adams along with Ann McCrory of Danske Bank, were waiting for them with a photographer as trade stand judge Andrew Short had awarded them third place in the Best Kept Dairy Stall with the RUAS President commenting on how pleased she was to have competitors from Cork make the journey to the show and how she loved the tinsel on the head cards along with the garlands, red bows and fairy lights adding some festive cheer to our dairy show stall.
We still had one last part to the jigsaw in the form of showing our two-year-old heifer in milk, the real reason we had headed North.
We purchased Eedy Rubicon Acclaim in September 2022 as a maiden heifer from the Helen family, a heifer we knew was special, we bred her to MB Luckylady Bullseye and she had a super heifer calf this August, calving at 23 months, we knew she was very young but had developed well and was an exciting prospect for the ring.
John Kirby completed step one of the plan by classifying her VG87 in early October and then step two saw her stand in seco nd place at the National Dairy Show in a class where she had to compete against heifers a lot older than her, she enjoyed the show and improved from it tremendously.
She truly is a wonderful heifer, super hard-topped, a rib cage that you could tip a lorry load of feed into, and she would convert it into milk, she is predicted to do 9,300L in her first lactation, but best of all, she can really walk on her good feet and legs, and she was tremendous power for her age.
We knew she would be up against it when we arrived at the show with ten other heifers in the class and Philip Jones bringing his stunning Solomon heifer. Mike Duckett took his time, knowing the two heifers were the very best Junior two-year-olds in milk, eventually tapping out Acclaim in first place, commenting on how she tracks perfectly in her walk.
Philip's Hallow Denver Twizzle won the senior heifer in milk, which we were delighted to see as we have her daughter here at home and Hallow Lamda Haniko Twizzle was the second place heifer to Acclaim in the two-year-old in milk class.
Philip is a good friend to us; it is great to compete against each other and still have the craic outside the ring. Philip went on to win Supreme Interbreed Champion with Hallow Solomon Twizzle 3, his sixth time winning the title - a phenomenal achievement for any cattle breeder.
With what was a fairytale ending for us on our 2023 show season, all that lay ahead was a seven-hour journey back to Cork, we knew the heifers had a long few days so it was important to take our time and get them home safely.
But without doubt, the real highlight of the show was the atmosphere, the warm welcome on arrival, the superb hospitality over the few days. All those who are a part of the RUAS team were so friendly and helpful, a show we will definitely return to every December.
While Santa has delivered for us already, I hope he visits you all as well. We would like to wish you all a very happy, peaceful and safe Christmas.
