Claims historic double showmanship win at International Dairy Week
Showmanship Grand Champion at International Dairy Week Becky Hynes with Judge Alexandra Mathews
It was an early start on Sunday morning, but a rather late morning milking as we tuned into a livestream from International Dairy Week in Australia, Sunday afternoon at IDW is Showmanship classes, which equates to a 3am Irish time start.Â
With Becky having won the Sheri Martin Intermediate showmanship class twice before at IDW in 2024 and 2025, she knew what it takes to win, and while many were trying to talk her up as a potential three-time winner, she avoided the hype to remain cool and calm. Alexandra Mathews was officiating as the showmanship judge this year. She previously spent nine years competing in 4H in Canada before moving to Australia. She is a previous winner of a Sheri Martin class at IDW and has also judged showmanship at Australian Nationals. With 110 competitors in the showmanship at IDW, competition is always tough. In Becky's intermediate class, there were 40 entries, so it was split into two heats with the top eight from each heat going back into the ring to battle it out. The excitement spiralled in our house as Becky was finally pulled out in first place. She had done it, she had become a three-time winner of the class, judge Alexandra Mathews commented that her first-place handler demands your attention when she walks into the ring.
In a new twist at IDW, this year they had a showmanship championship for the first time so the work wasn’t over for Becky as she waited for the final class to be completed before returning to the ring with the other first and second-place handlers. As they lined the centre of the ring, our house filled with a roar of cheers as Becky was high fived by the judge to become Showmanship Grand Champion, Alexandra commented afterwards that a judge once told her showmanship was like dancing, for her Becky and her heifer were true dance partners, they just flowed around the ring and she had also been an easy winner of her class.Â
Becky told me afterwards on the phone that it was interesting the judge had mentioned dancing because just before they entered the show ring, Becky gave her heifer a pat on the neck and quietly said to her, lets dance girl. The win was a great lift for the entire team as tiredness kicks in fast, Becky had been hectic at the clipping crate getting the twenty animals clipped off so a few hours sleep was badly needed after five hours of showmanship as the following morning was a 3am start as she had 11 animals to prepare for the youth show, we had the slightly easier job of getting our Sunday jobs completed and with the stress of the showmanship out of the way, a relaxing Sunday evening watching the IDW livestream of the youth show. I still get confused at times that Becky is in Monday while we are still in Sunday, she has a busy week ahead showing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so a well-earned rest will be required after the show.
While there was celebrations over the win in Australia, we had also celebrated earlier in the week when the results were announced for the Danske Bank On Farm Challenge. We were placed third in the Colourbreed Maiden Heifer class, Rathard Sidekick Jagerbomb won the Holstein Incalf Heifer class and was also HM in the Junior interbreed Championship. Jagerbomb has turned into a super heifer; she has great confirmation and when you get a Sidekick that good, they can become the best of the best. Cash was placed second in the Colourbreed Heifer in Milk class and Rathard Kiki was placed second in the Colourbreed Senior Cow class. We were delighted with the results and very grateful to Alan Timbrell for travelling so far to judge our animals and also giving great reasoning on his placings.
The IDW and On Farm Challenge success wasn’t the only good news this week, Dairygold also announced the December milk price and held the milk price which is to be commended when other processors had made reductions of 3 cent. Milk markets are extremely tough at the moment. Global demand is good however, global supply outpaces demand which is leading to challenging times for dairy farmers across the world.
Little Pat, our premature calf, is making fantastic progress. His final day in the house saw him running around the kitchen with the dogs, so we knew he was fit enough to return to the farm. As he is still so small, he lives in an isolation pen and has a heat lamp to keep him warm so he is not wasting energy, he is drinking three litres of milk a day now which is broken down into three feeds and he seems to have gained great strength due to the fact he has more room in his pen and can stand up and get some exercise a lot easier. We had four more cows calve this week all of which were incalf to sexed semen and all had heifer calves.Â
Unfortunately, unlike little Pat, we were not so lucky with one calf, the cows was calving during the day and as soon as we saw the toes, we knew the calf was coming backwards, so we grabbed the calving ropes quicky to get her out but unfortunately signs of life were very weak and the calf was dead within a minute of being born. A dead calf really dampens the spirits around the yard but we still have to get on with the job and can’t dwell on it for too long.
Calving will really start to get busy now and we also have four late nights of watching Becky on livestream showing in Australia, we miss her terribly when she is away and Christmas has been a little different the last three years but somehow she always manages to lift us up in January when we see her succeed. In the three years she has been going to Australia, she has grown up so much, grown in confidence and skillset but most importantly, never gets arrogant about her success; she has simply learned to be quietly proud of herself and what she achieves.
