I got to go to a cow show!!

Big news everyone, I went to a cow show!! You didn't expect me to stay away from cows for too long did you?

I had the opportunity this past weekend to attend the All Breeds All Britain Calf Show near Worcester, England.

The first week I was here I went to a talk on campus about the Holstein UK Young Breeders program. I talked to them about staying involved in the dairy industry while I was here, they had me sign up to be a member and said they would put me in contact with my area club's leader.

Honestly, I hadn't thought much about it since. While I was in Germany I got an email from the girl in charge of South Wales Holstein Young Breeders(HYB) asking me if I would like to tag along with them to the All Breeds All Britain Calf Show. When I returned on Tuesday, I emailed her back and said "of course, I would love to go, when is it?" She replied and said well it was that coming weekend and that I would leave early Friday morning.

Now, on most Fridays I don't have class and it wouldn't be a problem, but 4 times this semester I will have a Friday workshop from 4-6pm. It just so happens that this Friday was the first workshop, so I wasn't sure how I was going to manage this. When I left home, one of my major goals was to get involved in the UK dairy industry and attend a European cow show. I decided that going to a cow show in England is more important to me than going to class. (I can’t count how many times I have missed class at home to be with cows, so I figured why be any different here?) So, I emailed my professor and told him that I really wanted to go to this dairy ‘conference’ and that I would miss the workshop.

Now that I had decided I was going, I had to figure out how I was going to get there! I have no car, I can’t rent a car in Aber, and there is no easy train route to get there. I talked to Jess from the South Wales club and told her I wanted to come but didn’t know how I would get there, and she helped me get a plan together. I was going to take a bus south to Carmarthen early Friday morning and someone was going to pick me up there and take me the rest of the way.

When Friday morning rolled around I got up early to get on a bus at 7:40 to head to Carmarthen. Mind you when I got on this bus I knew barely anything about how this weekend would go, just that I knew I would get to see cows. I didn’t know who was picking me up in Carmarthen, where I would be sleeping, how I would get back to Aber or when I would be able to get home. But sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and trust that it will all work out. My flat mates told me that my plan sounded a little sketchy, but I was determined to go to this cow show! (Embrace the uncertainty, go with the flow.)

I text Jess and told her I would arrive in Carmarthen around 10 am, she sent me someone’s number and said that he would be passing by Carmarthen about that time. When I got to Carmarthen I text him and he picked me up and we were on our way, his name was Ifan and he was about my age and was very nice. We drove about 2.5 more hours before we reached the fairgrounds. When we got there, I helped them get the stalls ready, then unload, wash and feed the heifers.

The truck/trailer the calves were hauled on

South Wales Holstein string

Northern Ireland's Stalls

This show is a little different than most, there are 20 clubs of HYB including clubs from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England. For the Holstein show each club qualifies 1 heifer per class plus colored breed heifers that qualify. South Wales brought a total of 16 heifers. The club then travels together and stalls as a group instead of by farms. So, club members take care of the calves together and pretty much come and go when they can and they know others will take care of their animals. For me this was really weird, we took care of people’s calves all weekend for them to show up Sunday to walk her in the ring. But it was also nice because I got to help out a lot and work with the heifers.

Ignore my shadow, but 5 of us slept in this tiny camper

On Friday night, it was getting late and I was tired but I still wasn’t sure where I was supposed to sleep. I finally figured out there was a spot for me in the caravan (small camper) but I still had no idea where the caravan was parked. Finally, one of the guys showed me where to go and there were 5 of us that stayed in this tiny camper.

My favorite thing is the hats they wear with their numbers

Saturday was showmanship classes. Each club qualified 1 person in each class, ages 12-26. They take showmanship a lot more seriously here than we do at home and their showmanship is perfect, they pretty much look for the same things we do. All day I helped watch the calves and get them ready. I also got to watch a lot of the show. Saturday night I was told there would be an exhibitor’s party, but I didn’t really know what to expect.



One thing Dairy farmers all over the world agree on is, it’s not a proper show without copious amounts of alcohol involved. I was surprised by the choice of beer though, I thought it would be some European beer, but no, they like American Budweiser. Saturday night they brought in a DJ and a booze truck (yes, a booze truck) in the last aisle of the barn and had a proper party. It was funny though because there were people aged 12-60 out on the dance floor.



Sunday was the actual show, at this show there are only heifers and they have them split into 6 classes, age breaks are way different than they are at home, and there were 20 heifers per class. The Holstein judge was from Switzerland and the Swiss judge was actually Ifan’s (the guy that gave me a ride) dad. All day I went back and forth from watching the show to helping get the calves ready in the barn. In the barn they had a whole aisle with lights and chutes that everyone used to fit the calves. Around 3:30 they picked all the breed champions, but they didn’t pick a supreme champion. We got all the cows back on the trailer and were ready to head out.

Ifan gave me a ride back to Carmarthen, luckily, we were early enough that I was able to catch the last bus back to Aber. I had to wait in Carmarthen for about 30 minutes before getting on the double decker megabus to arrive in Aber at about 9:30. It was a really great weekend and I am so glad that I took the chance and went on the adventure.






Side note: Over here 1st place gets a red ribbon and 2nd gets a blue ribbon. I know, weird right?









Hurricane Ophelia



On Monday, Wales got the hit by the outer edges of hurricane Ophelia. Ophelia hit Ireland, and Northern Ireland hard before going just North of us and hitting Scotland. We got some high winds and rough waters. We had wind gusts around 50 mph Monday afternoon, the university cancelled all Monday afternoon classes and activities. We also had some really huge waves. I live right on the coast so I was able to watch all the action from my kitchen. Sarah, Kamara and I probably sat on our kitchen table for 3 hrs. watching the waves and all the stupid people that got too close. Waves were crashing over the promenade wall and bringing sand, rocks and seaweed up on the sidewalk and street. We went downstairs and there was literally seaweed on our front steps. The coastguard finally came out and tried to get all the people off the street. As far as I know no one was really injured and everything is fine! Look at the video I shared on facebook to get a glimpse of what was happening!!

➹“Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.” – Margaret Shepard➷