Paula Hynes: What advice would I give a 20-year-old wanting to farm?

It's been a truly international week for Paula and the gang on the farm in Aherla — and beyond

UCC students visiting the Hynes farm.

Fresh from the excitement of Becky's success in the Showmanship at International Dairy Week, Monday was Youth Show day at IDW where Becky had 11 animals to prep for the show ring on top of showing a few herself.

It was a good week, with the show kicking off with winning a class with a junior Brown Swiss heifer. Her final animal on the halter for the day was Impression Diamondblack Daphne which she owns a half share of.

Some of you might remember I mentioned Daphne in a previous article before Christmas as she was due to calve — well she calved with a Grinch-sired heifer calf and once Becky arrived in Australia, she put a lot of work into Daphne to prepare her for the show. 

Daphne is a milking yearling and won’t actually be 24 months old until late February. She won her class comfortably at the IDW Youth Show and was then tapped out as Reserve Champion, led by a senior leader, before going on to be tapped out as honourable mention Grand Champion of the youth show. 

With little time to celebrate, the following day saw Becky have to prep another 11 animals in the clipping crate for the National Brown Swiss Show and National Junior Jersey Show.

She was back in the winners enclosure again with a Brown Swiss heifer and went on to be tapped out as Reserve Champion Junior Brown Swiss. Wednesday at IDW was another hectic day on the clipping crate for Becky with nine animals to prep, four Jersey milkers and five junior Holsteins two of which got into the placings. 

Ryan Krohlow from Wisconsin judged the Jerseys, and I have to say, it was without doubt some of the most impressive judging I have ever seen with outstanding reasons on his placings of animals.

Ryan has spent 20 years clipping and preparing animals for the show ring and worked with the very best cows. 

The job of a cattle fitter is to make a cow look its very best; to highlight the strengths and hide faults if there are any, those 20 years cattle fitting has no doubt made him a world-class judge and it is easy to see why he was chosen to judge at World Dairy Expo later this year.

With a show as big as IDW, there is always one last roll of the dice and that came on the last day as Impression Diamondblack Daphne was competing in the National Holstein Show and in the very first class of the day at 8am in the milking yearling class. 

Becky did one last night shift to ensure she had Daphne looking her very best. At home we had eyes glued to the livestream on the TV as the pair walked into the ring. 

Daphne was a very credible fifth, in fact she was the only true milking yearling in the class as the rest were four months older and born in October 2023, but still a great result for her and a very successful show. Daphne certainly impressed, and many felt she deserved to be further up the line. 

Becky was approached by a top show team afterwards about Daphne, and they are currently looking at sending her to the Royal Sydney in April. Showing completed, show gear packed and departed, the truck picked up the animals that evening and they arrived back on the farm at 2am when Becky messaged to say everything had travelled and come off the truck healthy.

UCC visit

While watching the showing from IDW on livestream in the evenings and early mornings, it was also a very international week on the farm here as Dr Noreen Byrne from UCC visited us with a group studying MSc Sustainable Development, Agri Food and Co-operatives. 

The group consisted of Irish students as well as students from the US, India, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brazil, Sudan and Chile.  With students from so many countries, it really highlights how international a university UCC is and it was our absolute pleasure to give them a brief insight into farm life. 

Little Pat made an appearance and he quickly began running around the yard so it was brilliant to see how much progress he has made. His ears are even big enough that we were able to tag him this week for traceability, BVD testing and DNA registration. 

We had so many fantastic questions from the UCC students, such as what global influences have created the downturn in milk price, and one of my favourite questions was, what advice would you give to a 20-year-old who wishes to enter dairy farming?

I thought to myself for a moment, and it was quite an easy question to answer as it was the same advice we gave Becky, and we see how it has influenced her. 

Don’t be afraid to travel, the world is a big place but agriculture is a common language which makes the world seem smaller, surround yourself with great mentors, learn from the very best, keep your eyes and ears open on every farm you visit, and remember, there is more than one farming system, more than one way to feed a cow. 

The hours on dairy farms can be long and tiresome, but if you enjoy the type of system you operate, love the type of cow you milk, then it makes the job more enjoyable and a little easier. 

We are always conscious that not every student has been up close with a cow before, so as the group got ready to board their bus, we pulled Cash out on a halter for a group photo. It gave everyone a chance to rub her or say hi to her before they left.

We wish all the students very successful studies at UCC and hope they enjoy their time in Cork.

As calving begins to ramp up and Charolais calves are now arriving, Becky will be home from Australia next weekend. 

Time has flown by, and no doubt she will still have lots of news for us from her travels. She has already sent her lunch and dinner requests for the first few days after she returns so it is safe to say she missed the Irish cooking, but maybe not the Irish weather so much.