Months of hard work for young dairy enthusiasts from around the country culminated at the IHFA National Young Member Association (YMA) finals last week, with a superb display of calves and handlers at Cillín Hill Mart, Co Kilkenny.

The finals brought together 10 regional YMA clubs, featuring handlers and calves who qualified through regional competitions held in June and July.

Now for the third year, Northern Ireland Holstein Young Breeders were invited to participate in the showmanship competitions. In addition to the calf and handling competition, the event included a clipping competition and an ag analysis competition.

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Judges

For the second year running, three judges adjudicated in the show ring. Brendan Greenan from Co Limerick had the difficult task of judging both the individual and team clipping competitions on Tuesday morning. No stranger to the show ring, Brendan has fitted cows for shows across Europe, Ireland and the UK.

In the afternoon, Alison Lawrie took to the ring to judge the showmanship classes, one of the UK’s most accomplished young dairy exhibitors, with an impressive record in both cattle showing and showmanship competition.

Michael Yates joined the ring on Wednesday to judge the calf classes. From the Logan Herd in Scotland, Michael is a renowned breeder, exhibitor and judge, with a lifelong involvement in the Holstein breed.

The clipping competition kicked off events, with club members competing either as individuals or pairs. Competitors had 90 minutes as an individual or 70 minutes as a pair to fully clip and prepare a calf for the show ring. The team of Hannah and Zoe Greenan from the Breffni Oriel club took the top spot in the team clipping, with Sinead O’Sullivan from the Cork club taking the top honours in the individual clipping competition.

The ag analysis competition was well underway as the clipping competition was being judged. Teams were posed a scenario from judges Feidhlim Roche and Michael Doran, in which they were required to present solutions. The brief surrounded a display of four silage analyses, where the teams had to identify the best and poorest quality silages for a high-yielding dairy herd and explain their choices and reasons why. They also had to explain what on-farm management factors they thought might have influenced the differences in silage quality. The Galway team of Kane Boal, Megan Boal and Adam Doran took first place here.

Showmanship champions

In a fantastic display, Georgina Hynes from the Cork club came out on top in the showmanship competition to win the overall national title, after securing first place handler in the junior class. She pipped Jennifer Harty from the Kerry club who was tapped out as reserve champion handler, while Pauric Coleman, from Carlow/Kilkenny, completed the final lineup as honourable mention.

It was a brilliant day for the Cork club, which had the best team of handlers overall and took home the Kildare Friesian Breeders Club Perpetual Trophy for handling.

Rathard clean sweep

On Wednesday the show kicked off with coloured-breed calf classes and it was a full family affair for the Hynes Family, who took overall champion with Rathard Choco Kalani, Rathard Sting Kaela in reserve and Rathard Ghost Kohana receiving the honourable mention.

In the Red and White Championship, Trevor Williamson from the Breffni Oriel club did the double, winning champion with Drumshanny Leo Jodie Red and reserve with Drumshanny Lee Slaney. The honourable mention went to the Doran family of the Galway club with Slatabogie Acetylene Veronared.

Holstein champions

No less than seven Holstein classes followed, with large classes throughout. Following first place in the senior calf class, Akeragh Sidekick Aideen 2334 from Daniel and Emer Curtin took top honours as champion calf with Jones Chief Diamond from Jones Holsteins of the Slaney club in reserve. Bourkeholme Prosecco from Eamonn McLoughney, representing the Laois/Offaly Club got the honourable mention.

To round off a spectacular day, the Kildare club took home the Breffni Oriel Friesian Breeders Club YMA perpetual trophy for the best team of calves.

Speaking after the competition, a spokesperson for the IHFA expressed gratitude to all their sponsors.

“This year we were thrilled to welcome back FBD as title sponsors for the finals. We would like to thank FBD, alongside class sponsors AgriNet and Volac for their long standing support of the YMA and the national finals. David Clarke Livestock sponsored the clipping competition and Alltech sponsored the ag analysis competition, as well as BG Hoofcare coming on board again this year as showmanship championship sponsor.”