Paula Hynes: A year of much progression
Aisling Murphy with Rathard Sting Kaela and Georgie Hynes with Rathard Legit Sparkle at the Midleton Show.
Finally, the heat and sunshine are arriving after what was another week full of rain. March, April and May have been fairly dismal from a weather perspective, so hopefully a bit of normality will return for the summer.
Our week was packed with catching up on work, our Munster Bovine milk recorder, Denis, was in to complete a milk recording. Fat and protein levels have never been higher in May for us, so it will be interesting to see the breakdown of which cows are driving that. Our latest milk test showed 3.77 protein and 4.30 fat.
IHFA classifier John Kirby also paid us a visit to classify a small group of animals. He knows the cows well at this stage, so it is always interesting to hear his views on how cows have progressed from the previous year.
Robin, whom we purchased from John Curtin through the IHFA Premier sale last year, is now a VG88 second calver and had a smashing heifer calf sired by Alpha in March. We also had a number of heifers classified VG, including Acclaim's first heifer, who is now milking.
Rathard Bullseye Alanna scored VG86 which we were delighted with as she is a March 2024 born heifer and only calved in March of this year.
She has been very successful for us as a heifer, placing seco nd at Nationals and the Winter Fair in 2024 and then qualifying for Nationals again in 2025 and going on to win at Tullamore show so we are looking forward to showing her now as a milker and she is improving every week.
The big success for us was seeing Acclaim score EX92 as a third calver and the Kasey achieve the same EX92 score, two very young cows and they just keep getting better and better.
Kasey's first daughter Khaleesi is now milking as well and she scored VG87. She is a stunning heifer in milk with a superb udder who had so much success as a calf and in-calf heifer, so now she continues her journey in the show ring.
Classifying day also coincided with scanning a number of heifers and cows, a fantastic result with the heifers delivering high conception rates to sexed semen and some very exciting calves due in early 2027.
Kasey did the business again and is confirmed in calf to sexed semen again and due early January 2027. She really is a superstar, with an average lifetime calving interval of 345 days and always served to sexed semen.
Her daughter Khaleesi and sister Kali also confirmed in-calf first service; it really is an outstanding Jersey cow family for us. If all goes to plan with Kasey, she might travel to the Balmoral show in 2027. We had planned to take her this year, but unfortunately, the show was not taking entries from Southern Ireland.
Her 2026-born heifer calf may travel as well as an in-calf heifer; she looks like another star, tremendous depth and length and very correct on her feet and legs. Fingers crossed the K family will go from strength to strength for us in 2027 with pregnancies due to Victorious, Sting and Knox.
We noticed last minute that the Midleton Show had added Jersey classes to their schedule this year for the first time, so we decided to make a few late entries just before they closed.
Kasey's dam who calved last September and was then halter trained was drafted out of the main herd and given a few washes to make another show appearance. She was four th at the National dairy show on her first outing and secon d in the senior cow class in the RUAS Winter Fair on farm challenge.
She is still milking 24 litres a day at grass and due to calve again in early September, and she remembered her job on the show halter straight away as she went back to show work.
Her Vierra Sting heifer calf was also having her first outing, along with a September-born Holstein heifer calf. Pete also decided to bring Alanna to the Holstein heifer in milk class. We wanted to show fill her udder again and felt it was better to do that at a show, as they do get more attention, and it is easier to get caught up in another job if we are bagging them at home.
Georgie's friend Aisling is also joining us this year. She has been great working with heifers and is a dab hand at walking show cows from pen to parlour. It's wonderful to see her starting showmanship classes, farming is in her blood, her grandfather was a farmer, and no doubt very proud looking down from above seeing her showing heifers
Holstein breeder Don Lucey was officiating as judge in the dairy ring on what was the first proper warm weekend of the year; the main job for most exhibitors on the day was ensuring the animals remained shaded from the sunshine and were well watered.
Georgie kicked off the day with a first place in the showmanship, with Aisling placing second on her debut in showmanship, but in fairness to her, she had the hard graft put in at home and deserved the good result.
Becky claimed the red rosette in her showmanship class, and then, after a little team discussion, it was decided Aisling would show Kaela in the Jersey calf class, where the duo topped the class to take home the red rosette.
Kaela is sired by Vierra Sting and is a sister to Kasey. Their dam, Kiki, won the Jersey cow class for us, going on to claim champion Jersey with Kaela in reserve champion.
Georgie showed Sparkle in the September-born Holstein heifer class, a Legit-sired heifer, with Becky busy prepping all the animals for the show ring. Georgie is well capable of showing these older heifers and won the class.
Alanna took second place in the heifer in milk class. A successful day for the team and a memorable one for Aisling, with plenty of rosettes to hang on the wall and no doubt she will win many more during the summer, as the next stop for us all is the Belgooly show.
