IT HAS been quite a year for the Curtin family from Athlacca - and it’s not over yet. It started at the Charleville Show in June when John and Mary and their five children - Aoibhínn, Shóna, Clara, Darragh and Bláithín - brought a total of nine animals: three milking cows and six calves, mostly red and whites. Two of the cows did really well with Dalevalley Maze Apple Red, co-owned with her breeders Roy and Heather Cromie in Co Donegal, winning the All-Ireland junior cow class.
Rosstemple Beauty Queen RC won the third calver class. Dalevalley Maze Apple Red went on to win champion cow and Rosstemple Beauty Queen RC got honourable mention at Charleville Show. Aoibhínn, Shóna, Clara, Darragh and Bláithín got the chance to show their calves which they had been training for months.
The family also got to show all nine animals together as three groups in the group of three class. In August John took Rosstemple Beauty Queen RC to the Cappamore Show where he modestly says she was lucky on the day and was crowned champion. A couple of days later they took Dalevalley Maze Apple Red all the way up to Virginia, Co Cavan where she took part in the prestigious Baileys Cow Championship where she placed third in the junior cow class.
A few days later again they brought both cows to Limerick Show where John said the “competition was fierce”. Dalevalley Maze Apple Red was the reigning champion of last year and she has now gone back-to-back. The National Dairy Show in Millstreet is the final show of the season and John hopes to exhibit both cows there in October.
It’s hard enough to run a dairy farm, not to mind raise five children on top of showing pedigree cows in the summer but John and Mary manage it all. When asked by Farm Leader about all that is involved in showing cows, John explains there is extra work in showing milking cows compared to young stock or beef as “you'll need to judge how many hours of milk it takes to fill her udder so that she will look her best when she enters the ring”. “You may have to get up at silly o'clock to make this happen!” he laughed.
READ MORE: International interest in Limerick farm on edge of the city John says for the bigger and further away shows, exhibitors take their cows a couple of days beforehand so that they have time to recover after their long journey and make the maximum amount of milk and rumen fill to hopefully impress the judge. “This means that you need to have people at home to keep the farm going while you're away. “Shows are getting more and more professional and you could easily spend a whole day clipping a cow to a competitive standard, not to mention training, washing and constantly tweaking her diet to get her to reach her maximum potential,” explained John.
And the Curtins have it down to a tee..
