Paula Hynes: Our biggest team yet heads to Millstreet
Richard Jones and Becky Hynes preparing heifers at the 2025 National Dairy Show. Picture: Georgia Grennan
It’s showtime: FBD National Dairy Show week at Millstreet. I say show week, as it is a full week for us after months of preparation at home, getting the team in tip-top shape.
This year, we have our biggest team ever travelling, with 15 animals entered. The show begins for us the weekend before as we organise all the feed and equipment needed for the team when they are away from home.
We have five milking cows competing, three Holsteins and two Jerseys, with a further 10 junior heifers on the team, six of which are Holstein and four Jersey.
The cows know the team and the team know the cows, and that is always a huge benefit in how they are managed at a show.
There have been weeks of daily washing, and late nights, as the cows receive their final feed at midnight each night, pre-clipping and also ensuring all animals are at full health; the cows have been on a maintenance dose of Rumo Stim for 14 days prior to the ring, ensuring they get no digestive upsets.
We get most of our supplements from Stock Health in Bandon and, as sawdust bedding is used in Millstreet, we also use Stalosan disinfectant powder on the sawdust to limit bacteria for the cows when they are lying down.
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We also feed a lot of alfalfa, pulp and milled straw to the show team, which we source from TJ Crowleys, and they have been super in always ensuring they have plenty in stock for us; it is always lovely to call to these places pre-show as they enquire about the animals and wish the team good luck.
Aoife Prunty is back with us for the show after being a huge part of the team in Tullamore; Richard and Pauric are with us again, and we will work alongside Paul and Emma, helping each other with respective show teams as they have been such a great help to us all summer.
Becky is also fitting for Gordon and Jennifer Kingston so it is great to have them stalled alongside us: many farms, about 23 animals and one big team effort.
Tuesday of show week is clipping day, as all animals are re-clipped at home to ensure they spend as much time as possible at the show eating and lying down.
Tuesday night is prep night at the show, as all head cards are put in place, water drinkers installed, beds prepped and show gear put in place along with feed, as Wednesday is such a hectic day transporting animals to the show, so everything needs to be in place for them.
Georgie joins the team at the show on Thursday, a day off school but crucially a learning day as she gets vital experience on the clipping crate before she heads to Italy later in October.
Thursday is mostly spent giving each animal one final run of the clipping machine.
Some of the team stay in Millstreet in a bed and breakfast, as there needs to be someone with the animals 24 hours a day, so there are different shifts so everyone gets sleep; Becky always works through the night prior to the milking animals showing, as each animal is on a different milking time depending on what time their class is on Saturday.
I am lucky Noreen in Knockadrish B&B always keeps a few rooms for us every year; she looks after the crew so well.
The farm at home still has to run every day, so Pete and I spend most of our time toing and froing from the show, with lots of early mornings and late nights.
Friday is a busy day, with showmanship classes beginning after lunch. Georgie, Becky and Aisling are all qualified for the YMA league finals which kick off the show.
We have a number of other showmanship handlers using our heifers for the showmanship classes that follow the league finals and the evening is finished off with the junior Jersey heifer classes where we have four heifers competing.
We also try and grab a chance to see some of the trade stands on Friday evening as Saturday is simply too busy for us with junior Holsteins and the milking cow classes.
The will have a stand at the FBD National Dairy Show, so be sure to pop by and say hello to the team, and hopefully I will get to meet some of you around the show.
There was great excitement in the house last Saturday evening as we watched the final day’s showing at World Dairy Expo in Madison, the biggest dairy show in the world.
We had invested in a first-choice pregnancy last year. The five pregnancies were due in March of 2026, and we had the pick of the heifer calves at three months of age, all sired by Hinge, who is one of the most sought-after bulls in the world.
The dam of the calves is a VG87 two-year-old sired by Detective; the granddam is Eixdale Pwerup Alongside, who won the four-year-old class at the Royal Winter Fair in Canada last year.
We felt last year this was one of the most exciting cow families in the world and she has proven us right.
Big cow families deliver; we have a granddaughter from Esprit and her heifer calf won at Tullamore for us this year and looks to be an exciting calf for Millstreet and our granddaughter from the $1.95m cow stood national champion last year and is due to calve in November.
As for our Hinge Pwerup, she is +14 for conformation on her genotype and will most likely hit the show circuit next year.
