After a long weekend we took a look back over the events of the successful Hereford Youth Workshop which took place on the farm of Timmie & Sheila O’Sullivan, on Saturday May 3rd. The youth programme which is specifically designed to raise the skill level and confidence of youngsters took place in Ahane, Brosna, Co. Kerry with a fantastic turnout showing that the younger generations of today have great interest in the Hereford Breed.
The day started off with the stock judging competition, each participant was given their judging cards and asked to carefully judge a selection of animals that consisted of Hereford cows, calves and heifers. There were four separate tasks on the sheet that all the young handlers were required to fill out carefully with the aim being to match their answers as best they could to the Master Judge’s sheet, Matt Goulding. They would then tick off their age group underneath their answers placing them into their designated categories of Under 12, 12 – 18 and 18 – 26 making it easier to decipher the winners at the end of the day.
It was time for ‘Guess the weight of the Bull’, with everybody crowding around trying to estimate what they believed to be his weight, mumbling to friends and discussing it with others trying to suss it out in order to guess the closest answer and be declared the winner. The bull was later put on the scales and weighed in at 708 KG with the closest guess by Mr. Eamon O’Donovan guessing his weight to be 712 KG, Eamon had his skills on display throughout the day as he also placed first in the 12 – 18 Stock Judging competition.
The break followed the competitions and due to the hard work of the fantastic chef’s on the day there were chips and burgers ready for everybody when the time came. A huge thanks to Irish Hereford Prime who kindly sponsored the delicious burgers and for those very hard working chef’s who made sure everyone was fed and well looked after before taking a break themselves. Everyone sat down to enjoy their food while some of the adults just went for tea or coffee, but with the sun shining and everybody happy it was a thoroughly enjoyed rest for everybody attending.
With the crowd well rested it was time for the Guest Speaker and demonstrations to begin, it started with Mr. P.J Hegarty of Southern Milling who addressed the crowd as they listened tentatively as he spoke about Nutrition informing us of what they do, how they do it and how it can benefit your herd. With the talk over and the questions answered it was now time for Mr. Peter O’Connell to start his grooming demonstration as he washed, dried and groomed the bull speaking as he done so informing everyone step by step what he was doing and why. The Demonstration was very interesting as he talked the crowd through what equipment he was using and where you could get it. The end result was fantastic and the Bull was lookingsharp as he handed him over to Matt Goulding to continue the demonstration with showing and leading the Bull as he gave tips and tricks to how to best lead a Bull especially for shows. The young handlers paid careful attention to both demonstrators as they informed them of new skills and tips that could come in very useful in the future. He also spoke about the Stock Judging and what he wanted them to look out for when they were judging earlier that day.
With the competitions, demonstrations and talks over it was time to announce the winners of the Stock Judging competition earlier that day. Winners in the Under 12 category were: Sean O’Sullivan, Aidan O’Brien, Evan Lane, and P.J Moloney. Winners from the 12 – 18 category were as follows: Eamon O’Donovan, Clodagh Lynch, Jamie Diggins categor, and Aine Breen. Lastly the winners from the 18 – 26 category were: Eileen O’Keefe, Michelle Harnett and Gerard McGloughlin.
There was an array of prizes giving out to each of the winners on the day including trophies, t-shirts, jumpers, halters, show sticks and show coats with the intention of keeping the youth who attended on the day interested and up to date with the new equipment used. Congratulations to whose winners and to everyone who participated, there was a great effort made by all resulting in a great day.
The photography competition from the Hereford Youth Workshop is still going on, if you were there on the day and took any photos, send them to marketing@irishhereford.com or post them to our Facebook wall, where the winner will receive our ‘Mystery Prize’. If you would like to give us feedback on how you found our Workshop and what you would like to learn in the next one please do not hesitate to contact us, we are happy to hear from everybody.