Paula Hynes: I'm on an Azores high amid this busy show season

Irish Examiner

a day ago

It seems like every day is booked up at the moment. The team settled in well at home after Tullamore show — we watch them closely for a few days to ensure they are all at full health.
On Wednesday evening, we attended the Cork Holstein Friesian Club awards evening and barbecue.
It is always great to catch up with other breeders as, much of the time, we are simply too busy at shows to stop for a proper chat.
Robin was placed second in the heifer in milk in the Spring B section and Acclaim was awarded best Junior Cow, so we came home with another couple of trophies for the cabinet.
A visit from the Azores
Irish shows are fantastic for tourism, and Tullamore certainly is a show that attracts international visitors.
We were contacted by a Portuguese family early in the week.
They had been at Tullamore Show and were spending the week in Ireland and really wanted to visit the farm as they had seen our team showing.
They are actually from the Azores Islands which are in the mid-Atlantic, not exactly where you would expect to find top-class Holstein show cows, but Joao Arruda has his own dairy herd and shows quite a lot of cows and youngstock with sires such as Chief, Bullseye, Major, Sidekick, Grinch, and even has a Footloose pregnancy on his farm at the moment as he implants a number of embryos.
Matilde is a beef farmer and rears Charolais, Limousin, and Angus cattle.
The pair were a dab hand at milking cows and happily pulled on the overalls and wellies to help us milking.
We had a wonderful afternoon chatting about show cows and genetics before they headed of to enjoy the final few days in Ireland.
Invitations to more shows
Becky has an invite to some more foreign shows now and we too have an invite to the Azores islands, although I think I'll leave my milking gear at home and instead spend my time visiting some of the wonderful vineyards they have there.
The cattle box was hitched on again on Thursday evening in preparation for our trip to Downpatrick.
We purchased a November-born Jersey heifer at the Summer Sizzler sale in early July. She is a Knox Glamour heifer that oozes style and she was bred by Ashley and Lyndsay Fleming, who own the Potterswalls herd in Co Down.
Ashley and Lyndsay are hugely successful in the show ring and have a superb herd of Jersey cows.
They both judge at shows as well, and we have shown in front of Ashley here in Cork, while Georgie has shown in front of Lyndsay at the All-Britains.
It is always a joy to get a tour of a fellow breeder's herd, and it was a weekend we had been looking forward to for quite some time.
Glamour has completed all her quarantine period since the Sizzler sale along with all the blood tests and TB testing required prior to export from the North.
She will again be blood-tested and TB-tested at home and spend a quarantine period in the yard along with being inspected by a DAFM Vet.
It is lovely to have her finally coming home and hopefully she will fit into the show team really well.
Heading for Cavan
The cattle box won't be unhitched for long though, as Pete and Becky head to Virginia in Co Cavan early on Monday morning with Acclaim for the Baileys cow competition, sponsored by Diageo and Tirlán.
The competition is now in its fifth decade.
The Baileys is undoubtedly one of the ultimate dairy show classes — 28 entries this year from across Ireland and Northern Ireland.
It is a dairy class where the best of the best cows go head-to-head and simply an honour to have a cow good enough to show in that ring.
We never planned to show at that Baileys this year. In actual fact, we only plan one show at a time. We spent four days dwelling on whether we would enter Acclaim, and it was a team decision.
The entry was only submitted 24 hours before entries closed as we wanted to be 100% sure she was happy after travelling home from Tullamore.
Huge ask for Acclaim
It is a huge ask of a cow to show at both Tullamore and the Baileys as they are so close together, but she has never looked better, never been so happy in herself.
She is a very young cow: In fact, she is four days too old to compete in the Junior cow section of the competition, but I have no doubt she will walk to the parade at the beginning of the Baileys cow competition doing herself proud and doing our farm proud.
And, wherever she is placed in the class, she will have held her head high. She gets the best of care at home. The entire team knows her so well. If we can continually keep her healthy, she has some big days ahead in the show ring in the coming years.
Finishing the season in Inniscarra
There are a couple of more agricultural shows ahead in August. We are entered for two as two heifers may travel to Iverk and we wanted to finish off the outdoor show season with a local show in Inniscarra and get a chance to catch up with some local people after what has been a phenomenal show season for us.
The diary for September looks hectic as Georgie sees the culmination of a big TV project she worked on in 2024.
Becky heads to the European Young Breeders School in Belgium for a week and literally swaps planes when she returns to Dublin, as she heads straight back out to the UK Dairy Day, which is a superb cow show, and she will get to work with some great people there.
We are back out in the UK later in September as Georgie will be competing at the All Breeds All Britain Calf Show again.
And, in the middle of all that, we must keep the show team at full strength as the National Dairy Show is looming in early October.
Sometimes it is easier not to look at my diary and simply take life day-by-day, but life is there to be lived, so we are not allowing much time to be wasted.