Thanks to all the volunteers at Inniscarra
Rathard Crushabull Saphire, overall show champion at Inniscarra Show
Our outdoor show season came to a close at Inniscarra Agricultural Show on August 31. The weather may have been wet and windy, but we were glad to support them as the girls would not be able to compete at the level they do today, had it not been for local agricultural shows.
This year, it was just me, Pete and Georgie going to the show as our eldest daughter Becky was busy packing for travelling — although she did make sure to clip and prepare the two heifers for us before we left.
Inisscarra Show is held on the community centre grounds. Before the show classes started, we had our heifers tied up in the cattle section.
Dermot Kelliher was officiating as judge, and although a beef judge, he still appreciated a quality dairy animal.
Rathard Ambrose Adina stood first place with Georgie in the January heifer class and the I led Rathard Crushabull Saphire into the autumn-born heifer class. She's a heifer that has done exceptionally well for us this year. She claimed the red ribbon again before taking best dairy animal and then went head-to-head with the beef animals in the overall championship and was tapped out as overall show champion.
It was nice to finish close to home and bring home two more pieces of silverware.
As we drove out of the showgrounds that afternoon, I thought to myself, agricultural shows are crucial for bringing people together to socialise, of course, that is clearly evident with the attendances on show days, but these rural shows do so much more than one day of socialising.
Agricultural shows bring communities together through the show committees, where they meet regularly to plan the shows, there is so much planning that goes into a show, booking judges, planning the layout of the show, organising stewards, safety officers, insurance, entries and again meeting after the shows.
The community spirit within the committee of Inisscarra show was so evident to me on the day, they had put a lot of planning into the event and were busy working away together, and this community spirit is mimicked all across the country on show committees where so many wonderful people volunteer their time.
I am eternally grateful to all these rural agricultural shows for the hard work they put in to giving us and other breeders a platform to display and compete our livestock, I see my daughters competing a national shows in Ireland and travelling abroad to compete a big dairy shows and they simply would not be competing at that level if all these rural show committees had not put in the hard work giving the girls and so many more young people shows where they could learn their trade and practice their skills.
Brendan Greenan called this week to hoof trim the show team for the National Dairy Show. Brendan has done super work for us all season, keeping the show team trimmed up — even the smallest heifers are very safe in his hoof pairing crate.
We had a first-lactation heifer last autumn, who had a curve in her front hooves, and after three trimmings, her feet are perfect now.
The last of the show team has also got their pre-show clips, while Becky was home for a few days.
She caught a flight to Newcastle on Tuesday morning to clip heifers for Katherine Jenkinson before they head down to the All Breeds All Britain calf show on Friday morning.
Georgie and I will fly to Manchester on Friday morning and take the train to Staffordshire and meet them at the show. Saturday will be showmanship day, so they are both in action in the ring, while on Sunday, all the heifers will be shown.
Becky also got good news last week as she has been selected for the IHFA YMA team who will travel to Italy in October to compete at Open Junior show in Montichiari which is also run in conjunction with the ANAFIBJ National show.
The youth show is an international show where competitors will compete in clipping, stock judging and showmanship competitions while also getting the opportunity to view some of the very best Italian dairy cows across many breeds compete.
Autumn calving has slowed right down now, with the bulk of them calved. Sexed semen is really working well for us, with all cows in calf to sexed semen delivering heifer calves. We have four autumn-born Jersey heifer calves.
With plenty of grass on the farm, we have been letting the fresh calvers out to graze during the day with the main herd. They are all drafted again in the evening so they return to the cubicles on quality baled silage and high-energy ration.
With our maize being harvested this week, they will all move to a TMR diet in the next two weeks. It is good to get them out grazing in the short term for a bit of exercise, and they are very content, but as grass dry matter begins to reduce with the weather deteriorating, they will milk better on a full TMR diet. The show milkers will also switch to TMR at nighttime and remain on top-quality haylage during the day.
It is interesting to watch the autumn calvers after evening milking, they want to be drafted and are certainly happier indoors at night time, even when they see the spring calvers head off to grass, they wait patiently to be returned to their cubicles.
Farming is like a merry-go-round, with baby calves on the farm again. Autumn breeding season is just around the corner, and it is hard to believe we will be breeding the show heifers soon. It seems like only a few weeks ago we started halter training them for the show season.
