On the way to the National Dairy Show at Millstreet in the heart of dairying country, we were first struck by the abundance of good grazing grass together with signs of recent third-cut silage harvesting. Back home, regrowth is only just starting after the drought.

The show itself was held in one huge building with the cattle ring in the centre. Cattle shown were Holsteins and Jerseys. There was no sign of Friesians, and the English judge was doing a very good job of explaining his choices after each class. In England, we’ve noticed a decline in extremity in the show ring, together with size. Surprisingly, the heifers on show at Millstreet were all very tall and some on the narrow side. The mature cows were easier on the eye, of more moderate size and pleasing udder support.

To our eyes, the trade stands were very technical in a country with so much milk from grass.

I am always interested to have a good chat about bull selection with the AI companies. I had been hoping to get our Friesian bull into AI, but in my enthusiasm was ignorant of the rule that bulls for semen collection and commercial sale in the EU must not have been vaccinated for IBR. It had seemed a good idea to treat our sale bulls for IBR but I should have left the bull in question, Brinkworth Hildebrand, unvaccinated.

AI companies

There were surprisingly few AI companies present, but I did have a long chat with the salesman at Dovea, though they were advertising Secretariat, a good proven Holstein bull I have been using through Mastergen in the UK.

I had always thought of Dovea as a Friesian stronghold. The popular Friesian bull Dovea Sem was from their stud.

I love the South West Dairy Show in the UK. It’s my favourite show, full of people I know, innovations I’d like to buy, and free food everywhere.

My first attempt at free food at the Irish dairy show turned out not to be the coffee I’d been expecting but a cold green mineral drink, but the stall holders kindly pointed us in the direction of Dairygold, who were very hospitable considering there was no way we could have been their suppliers. Real coffee with ham sandwiches and little cakes were very welcome.

Brexit

Brexit was of high concern and often mentioned to us. It appeared to be of more alarm to the Irish farmers than our friends at home. At home, there seems to be an acceptance that things are only going to get worse.

MEP Seán Kelly was applauded in the main ring after a long speech which was mainly about Brexit. He also said there was a strong move not to reduce the CAP in Europe – they just needed four countries to raise their contribution – Denmark, Holland, Latvia and Sweden, which was meeting some resistance. Obviously the eventual disappearance of UK funding has a direct bearing on Plan B.

Kelly indicated that there would be a last-minute deal, but the problem would be with getting it through Parliament and the Conservative Brexiteers. However EU decisions have traditionally been made at the eleventh hour. The Irish press puts all the blame for the failure in negotiations on the UK’s lack of planning and clarity of intent, while the UK blames the EU for its intransigence. The problem is that there are 26 of them and one if us and we’re the only ones wanting a change, and the right-wing Tory Brexiteers are demanding this must be on the UK’s terms only.

I enjoyed reading Brendan O’Connor’s Brexit: An Idiots Guide which I found on the front page of the Irish Independent on Sunday morning.

What is Brexit? Brexit is Brexit. Apart from that, no one knows yet.

Is it actually going to happen?

That depends really. Hard to say. It probably will at this stage purely because we are coming up to the deadline, but in reality who can say?

Is Brexit going well?

Yes, it’s going very well. Any idiot can tell you that.