Paula Hynes: Hunting for the black pudding

With Cork summer show looming, it will be 'lights, camera, action' for Georgie as she starts work on her TV project.

Intermediate Showmanship winner at Clonakilty Show, Becky Hynes with Judge Damien Storan

Belgooly show was an enjoyable day out this year with the glorious sunshine. It was the first time the show put on Jersey classes and they certainly were a great attraction for the non farming community. 

Kids are used to seeing black and white cows so the different color combined with the size of the Jersey calf always grabs the attention of the younger generation. 

We had two Jersey calves there and our tent was inundated with youngsters wanting to rub them and say hello, and as you can imagine, we are always happy to oblige because for many it is their only up close encounter with a farm animal. 

Becky got the red ribbons rolling for us winning the YMA Intermediate showmanship and then Georgie won the Jersey calf class with Khaleesi who is a daughter of our VG87 two-year-old Jersey named Kasey.

We took Kasey for the spin as well as she hadn’t been out since taking the championship at Emerald Expo in April and again she won the Jersey cow class. It became a long day though, because as soon as we got home, Pete went mowing silage.

It's been a good week for Kasey as she was also scanned in-calf. She calved in February this year and was served in the lead up to Emerald Expo which wasn’t ideal as we were washing her daily at the time. She held to that service though and will calve a little earlier in 2025.

It’s always nice to see the show cows go in-calf quickly so we can concentrate on their show schedule for the season. 

Alanna was also scanned in-calf.  She calved in March to MB Luckylady Bullseye which was her tenth calf and was served on her first heat in April to Unix sexed semen and held. Alanna really is an old trooper at this stage but she looks as fresh as a seco nd or thi rd calver. 

It was all positive news on the pregnancy front this week as our Rita Ora heifer in the UK was flushed for the first time and she delivered big time with 12 grade-A embryos harvested. 

She was served to Bullseye sexed, which was an ideal fit for her. Those embryos have been frozen now and we plan to start implanting some of them in heifers here in the autumn. 

Rita will be bypassed on her next heat and then served on the following heat to get her pregnant herself and once confirmed, it will be relaxation time for her and hopefully she will see the show ring as a milker in 2025.

With Cork Summer Show looming, it will also be 'lights, camera, action' for Georgie as she starts work on her TV project. The crew arrive next week to film with her on farm and also follow her to the show.

I know the TV camera can be off putting from some people but it’s a really cool project for her to work on, so I really hope people don’t feel afraid to chat away to her as normal or feel awkward around her. 

There are hours and hours of footage goes into making even 30 minutes of TV, and editing will always cut so much footage. With the lens camera people use, it’s often a case that people might feel they are on camera, yet with long lens or short lens, the camera is really only filming what it needs to.

I am super proud of her working on this as it is humbling to think my little 10-year-old is going to be on TV screens around the world while it also is a fantastic way to show the world the passion behind Irish dairy and that our dairy farms truly are family farms.

But before we hit the road to Cork Summer Show, we were at Clonakilty show last weekend and we bought a visitor with us. Canadian agricultural journalist Craig Lester, who is the owner of the Rural Roots media platform in Canada.

Craig is also a 2023 Nuffield Scholar, so he has seen so many aspects of agriculture around the world in the last 12 months. He had spent the day prior to his visit with Bord Bia in Dublin and also visited UCD to meet with many researchers and professors working in ag.

It is always a pleasure to open the gates of our farm to people from all over the world and Craig's visit included many firsts for him as we had him hands-on, walking show cows in from the field, milking cows with us on the Saturday evening and then taking him the show on the Sunday where he sampled the famous Clonakilty Black Pudding which he informed us is "absolutely awesome".

While it was amazing to chat about Irish agriculture over dinner on the Saturday night, seeing is believing and it was lovely to show Craig how Clonakilty and West Cork truly are a global food hub and also home to Carbery co-op who were also main sponsors of the big class for two-year-old heifers in milk at the show.

Hopefully Craig left with some amazing memories of Cork and will maybe send a few Canadian tourists out to the west, as his mom is a travel agent back in Canada.

He certainly learnt how everyone knows everyone in Ireland as he had organised the places he wanted to visit himself and when he was asked in Bord Bia and UCD where his next stop was, he was amazed how they all knew us. As if the world couldn’t get any smaller, I dropped him to the train to Belfast as his next port of call was a visit to my Farming Examiner editor Rachel Martin.

While Clonakilty Show was a happy hunting ground for Craig on the the black pudding front, it was also a successful outing in the show ring for us, with Damien Storan officiating in the Dairy judging, Becky clinched yet another win in the Intermediate Showmanship.

Georgie stood top of the line in the Jersey heifer calf class with Khaleesi and went on to take Reserve Champion Jersey with her. Rathard Bullseye Acclaim also won a very strong autumn 2023 born heifer class with Becky, she is a heifer that really is maturing nicely, just like her dam, she has a tremendous set of feet and legs so hopefully she will continue to improve with a busy season ahead.