Paula Hynes: Special K with a hint of Chocochip at the Cork Summer Show
Becky Hynes with Reserve Supreme dairy Rathard Chocochip Kali, Ricky and Julie Barrett with Supreme Dairy Champion Laurelelm Slick Brilliant and dairy judge Stephen Shannon at Cork Summer Show over the weekend.
Last weekend, we headed to the Cork Summer Show, which, in many ways, is our local show as it is only 15 minutes from home. It really is one of those shows where urban and rural communities come together, as the showgrounds are so close to the city.
Once again, it attracted huge crowds this year, and Stephen Shannon took charge of judging in the dairy ring. Our day started with wins in the junior and senior showmanship for Georgie and Becky, our French student Emilie also claimed third place in the senior showmanship which was a fantastic result for her.
Becky was tapped out as champion handler with Stephen Harty from Kerry taking the reserve champion spot and Georgie taking honourable mention.
The team we showed in Clonakilty was having a rest weekend, and Rathard Bowlers Kaira was having her first day out at a show, also showing alongside her dam Rathard Chocochip Kali.
Kaira stood top of the line in the jersey heifer calf class, Emilie guided Aurora to four th place in the 2024 born Holstein heifer class and followed up with a win for Rathard Chocochip Khaleesi in the 2024 born Jersey heifer class.
Becky was taking charge of the milkers and took third place in the Holstein heifer in milk with Robin. Show cows have to work a little harder as they have three jobs to do, produce milk, produce a calf and show.
Robin has the makings of a great cow as she matures given that she has peaked at 42 litres a day, been to two shows in the last month and was also confirmed in calf this week to sexed semen.
Moving on to the Jersey milker classes, Kasey was taking a break after the Clonakilty show so Kali was our option. She already had a successful outing to Emerald Expo in April, and she won her Jersey heifer in milk class again at Cork, but had the senior Jersey cows to contend with in the championship.
We had three jerseys through to the championship line-up and were overjoyed to see Kali tapped out as champion jersey, an accolade she deserved as she will make an outstanding cow in time and is also confirmed in-calf for next January.
The Supreme Interbreed Championship loomed, Ricky Barrett's Laurelelm Slick Brilliant was tapped out as Supreme, a seventh lactation cow and only calved fresh one week.
The Barretts are renowned breeders from Togher, have always offered the girls words of encouragement and advice, and it was truly wonderful to see Ricky out on the circuit again, achieving great success. Kali was tapped out as Reserve Supreme and she has a little rest now before heading to Charleville show to compete alongside her sister.
My regular readers will know we are huge fans of cow families and within our Jerseys I like to think of them as the 'special K Club' as they all carry names beginning with the letter K since they originate from a cow we named Kylie.
She is now on her fif th lactation and had a wonderful Vierra sting heifer calf named Kassi. Kiki was her first heifer calf who is the dam of both Kasey and Kali who have been so successful for us.
Kasey stood as national colourbreed champion as a calf, and her first daughter Khaleesi repeated that achievement in 2024. Kalani is a full sister to Khaleesi and won on her first outing this year. She seems like a really special calf. And Kaira also won on her first outing.
Perhaps the weekend of Charleville Show will be the special K weekend as Kasey, Kali, Khaleesi, Kalani and Kaira all show that weekend at two separate shows, the senior Ks head to North Cork while the junior Ks head to the Cork YMA qualifier in West Cork.
We also had a visit from IHFA classifier John Kirby this week to score all our jerseys. Rathard Kiki, who is the dam of Kasey and Kali, is now EX90 and in calf again to sexed semen.
We also had four first lactation jerseys scored VG. Although our jersey herd is small, we have only once scored GP, and she will make VG on her second lactation.
With all our Jerseys served with sexed semen, we have a very smart group of heifer calves this year and a number of Jerseys due to calve again in the autumn.
We are also having a visit from the herds competition judge Darragh Sheehy this week for the CHFC herds competition, before the awards night and barbecue that follows in mid-August.
With the heat and sunshine returning, grass growth has really lifted, and second-cut silage has really progressed well in the last week.
Meanwhile, our maize crop has really surprised us, the crop is standing at 6ft tall already and has seen near-perfect growing conditions since it was set in mid-April.
We should start to see corn cobs soon, and hopefully, the weather will continue with heat, sunshine and moisture so that the crop can mature into high-value feed.
While the sunshine's in Cork, I am leaving my wellies behind as I head to the Royal Highland Agricultural Show in Edinburgh with Georgie, where she will be showing a team of Jerseys for Katherine Jenkinson.
The Royal Highland Show is Scotland's largest agricultural show, with over 1,000 exhibitors and over 4,500 livestock competing.
The show began in 1822, and the original showground is now the location of the Scottish Parliament, with the current showground now located beside Edinburgh airport. King George bestowed the Royal title on the show in 1948.
Friday is dairy day at the Highland, so it will be an early start after a late night flight, and Georgie will be back in the show ring on the Sunday for the showmanship and junior show.
Hopefully, she will have a little luck and bring home a few coveted rosettes from a royal show.
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