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The one thing I have learnt in the last two years is you can’t plan anything specific in The Republic of Ireland. It just sort of comes together and ends up being a masterpiece.
The trainers and hosts follow the same workshop plan as everybody else, but I have stopped trying to pin them down to exactly what we are doing when as they have never let me down yet. I guess you could say it is ‘organic’, on paper you cannot tell what the cattle are like or how capable the participants are but we always have a great time and lots of great tips are passed on.
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Hosts for the day were John and Kate Tait of the Westellen Herd, near Cork. We are very grateful to John and Kate who offered to host the workshop at short notice due to ill health in the original host’s family. Trainer for the day was Leo McEnroe who had made the long journey down to Cork from Cavan and that was quite a feat considering he had a cold (or was it man flu!!). Leo is not only a very good stockman but he is fab with the youngsters too. It was also nice to welcome Albert De Cogan, The AA Society’s Senior Vice President along to see what we were doing on the day. It is great when our Council take a keen interest in the programme and then they know what I’m talking about when I’m at Council meetings.
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The 10 participants were a mixture of young new comers and a few more experienced ones, but all could be described as enthusiastic. The cattle were the same mixture as the youngsters with some seasoned show animals and raw calves that had been haltered a few times. The day started with Leo showing everyone how to put halters on the right way round and tying the quick release knot. The more experienced three were then given the two well halter broken cattle and were left to prepare them for the show ring.
Leo did pop back every now and again to make sure questions were asked and answered but they got on with their own washing, blowing, clipping and dressing. The younger ones were shown how to halter break and quieten down the un-haltered calves. The calves were brought out and the youngsters took in turns to gently hold the halter while the calves walked round and the others were combing them and scratching them to put the calves at ease. I honestly think if that was all we had done the youngsters would have been happy just leading these calves around the pen. We did however have to admit defeat on one calf that came out of the crush, ran laps around the pen and somersaulted into the corner. To give him his due the young lad holding it didn’t let go!
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The youngsters were then shown how to wash the cattle and set about the poor things with buckets of water and bubbles. We stopped for lunch on the lawn of the Tait’s house which has a ha ha around it which I keep insisting on calling a moat! Lots of chatting was done and stories told in the sun while the cattle dried in preparation for the afternoons work.
The afternoon sessions started with Leo taking the participants through the finer points of clipping, telling them why and where they need to clip. The participants then took it in turns and all of them got the chance to clip heads, tails, top lines and tummies. I will point out here that the cattle are very carefully assessed as to whether they are quiet enough to do this seminar and myself and the trainer make the decision, it is always pointed out that at the end of the day they are animals and whatever you are doing with them you should be careful.
It is great to have so many keen participants that are so enthusiastic about getting involved and a trainer that doesn’t tell them they’ve done it wrong, but just asks them what they would do differently next time. After clipping came the dressing and it is amazing how much soap is needed on four cattle.
When all the cattle were dressed they were all tied in a line and Leo ran through the points to look out for in pedigree cattle. It was great to have some ‘show fit’ ones and some just out of the field so the youngsters could see the difference and explain about feeding for different purposes.
Following this was the bit that everyone likes doing, the ring craft. Everyone took it in turns to lead something and they all did incredibly well. We finished the day with halter making. Luckily John Tait had whizzed into town to get some rope as we had forgotten it and everyone had the chance to make their own halter and as per usual everyone couldn’t resist trying them on.
Another fabulous workshop with many thanks to John and Kate Tait, Leo McEnroe and the Munster Club.
I try not to say too much about my personal trips to these workshops but I have received some great hospitality throughout the UK and Ireland. It is good to have some time to discuss the YDP with trainers and host farmers and they have certainly given me some great ideas to think about. I am getting nervous about the final weekend event as it has been a lot of hard work, but I am optimistic about the future of the YDP and with all the great plans I will have to start working on 2011 straight after the final.
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