LOOKING GOOD: Michelle Horn of Camerons Line clips a cow ready for showing. (WARWICK SMITH/FAIRFAX NZ)
Manawatu Standard – The Dairy Event brings the best dairy cows to Feilding each year, as people travel from the deep south and far north to pit their stock against one another. Jill Galloway went along.
It is all about seeing how your stock matches up against other dairy cows.
“You can sit at home and think you have the best cows in the country but, unless you come to a dairy show like this, you don’t really know,” says Alison Trounce from Seadown, near Timaru.
She and husband Lyndsay were 15 hours on the road and a ferry ride away from the Dairy Event 2013. They left with two “cow floats” on Saturday afternoon, January 26, arriving at the Feilding show a day later.
They came with three in-milk cows and one heifer, all holstein friesians.
“The Dairy Event is important.
“It is a spectacle and all breeds are here. Most of the country’s major breeders still come,” says Mr Trounce.
They are past winners of many show ribbons and that translates into a higher sale price when the Trounces sell dairy cattle.
“It is good for others to see what you have and what’s around.
“It showcases and promotes the herd,” says Mrs Trounce.
Dairy Event chairman Lawrence Satherley says 330 dairy cattle were registered this year.
The show was on last week, from Wednesday to Friday, but some stock left on Saturday on the long trek home.
Mr Satherley says the event brings about 3000 people to the area and generates about $200,000 in expenditure.
“The motels were all full, people ate at restaurants, cafes, some needed to get their car or truck fixed at a garage, and they shop. It is worth a lot to the whole region.” Most people stay in motels, hotels and homestays around Feilding, and the overflow goes to Palmerston North.
Feilding Promotion works tirelessly to get people into accommodation, says Mr Satherley.
This is the fifth year Feilding’s Agricultural Stadium has hosted the Dairy Event, the all-New Zealand show. It is an annual event and it is good to have all the cattle under one roof, he says.
As well as most cattle being there for the show, a few are sold each year. This time it was the Summer Sensation sale at which 24 cattle went under the auctioneer’s hammer, plus five embryo packages.
While the stadium was full with black and white (holstein friesians) and brown (jersey) cows, there were a few red and white cows as well, the ayrshires, guernseys and milking shorthorns making their presence felt. The cows have hay and water. Many lie down to chew their cud. Most look relaxed.
People were busy grooming their cows. There is a small milking shed at the back of the stadium where in-milk cows were milked, so their udders would look their best when they went into the show ring. Cows were shaved, washed and their tails brushed, so they could put their best hoof forward.
Mr Satherley says the reality is there are many ways of looking at dairy farming – production per cow or per hectare, and there are some that have low amounts of supplements, while others go for a lot of supplements, such as palm kernel extract for their dairy cows.
The show evens things up.
“The Dairy Event is all about breeding cows which are superior on conformation. [Farmers or buyers] see where they rank among other good dairy cows.”
He says some bring in the best dairy genetics from all around the world and inseminate their cows with them.
Mr Satherley says young people compete too, during the Youth Show. They have to prepare a cow – clip and clean her, show her and they are judged as a team on that, rather than on the cattle beast.
It is about getting young people to be part of the dairy industry.
They are seen as key. There has been a system of sharemilking, starting with provision of labour only, managing a herd, then owning the cows, and finally working up to owning a farm. Something many sheep and beef as well as arable farmers, can only dream of.
None have such a system of making their way to owning a farm.
Mr Satherley says the judges at the Dairy Event come from overseas, and have no knowledge of the previous history of studs.
He says there have been many studs in the event which have been going for four or five generations.
“There is an amazing knowledge of stockmanship. It goes right from teenagers to grandparents.
“They know if a cow is off-colour and usually know how to treat it themselves.”
Don Ferguson is 78 years old, and says there were three generations of Fergusons at this year’s Dairy Event. Some younger (fourth generation) Fergusons wanted to come but they were back at school.
He has passed on the farm to son Warren but Don can’t stay away.
Dressed in his overalls, he sits and watches how his son and grandsons are doing with the cattle. “There’s a real family interest,” he says.
“My parents helped me, and now my son is farming, and we [Don and his wife] are on two acres.
“My grandchildren and great-grandchildren are interested.”
They are all at Otorohanga’s Ferdon Genetics stand, which has brought the most cattle to the event – 20. Don Ferguson has been showing dairy cattle for 66 years.
He started at calf club when he was 11. And he says he has been showing stud cattle for 60 years.
“And in that time, I have never missed a Waikato A & P Show.”
Mr Ferguson runs six cows in conjunction with the Queen.
He has two of their cows, sisters that are 6 and 7, at the show. They are jerseys.
He says the stud shows cattle because it allows it to compare its cows with others. Mr Ferguson says there have been disappointments during his show life but a “knock back doesn’t do you any harm” and makes you refocus your breeding.
And it makes a success feel great, he says.
When it comes to national dairy shows, he is a strong supporter and so are his family.
“It shows other breeders and the public what you’re doing. And breeding generations of good cattle – it gives you satisfaction.”
