Jersey NZ Youth Team Tackles IDW 2020
Article Contributed by Monique Radford – Published in the March 2020 Jersey Focus magazine
This year the Jersey NZ youth team travelling to Australia consisted of a mixture of experienced and new people. Returning competitors included Hannah Nicholson, Ella Pirie, Danika Beardsall and myself. The other team members consisted of Brad Seager, Jay Seebeck, Jacoba Gread, Robyn Gordon, Isabelle Radford and Thomas Jeyes. Team members came from different regions around the country and the combination of people created a great atmosphere.
We travelled to Australia in the early hours of Thursday morning. After spending the night in Melbourne, we travelled via the Healesville wildlife sanctuary to Shepparton. The sanctuary was a great way to begin the trip where we able to see the Australian wildlife. Saturday brought us to Tatura to look around the show grounds and for the clipping team to choose their heifer. It was important to choose a heifer that was relatively quiet. The clipping team washed the heifer and then put it into the stall. After this we went to the pool and ate ice cream due to the heat.
Sunday was the day of the competition. The competition was to begin at 12pm, but before it began the paraders practiced leading their heifers. Our team was on parading during the first half of the competition. Hannah, Robyn and Danika led the heifers in perfect synchronisation. They led three Jersey heifers and communicated well which lead to a total of 97/100 points.
Our clipping team was next. Before travelling to Australia, the team had practiced on animals in New Zealand. Brad, Thomas, Jacoba and Ella made up our clipping team. Each member had a specific job and carried it out quickly and efficiently. They worked so well together to clip the animal and finish in time. The animal was well behaved which ensured the team could work quickly and efficiently.
After the completion of the clipping the judge gave a quick look at the animal to assess the quality of the clipping. Our team scored 81 from 100 in this section.
We were able discuss our decisions and talk about the reason why we would place one animal over the other. We had placed the animals in the same order. Jay was the designated speaker for our team. He was last to speak which meant he needed to leave a lasting impression. He spoke incredibly well and then to top it all off our placings were exactly the same as the Over-Judge. Our points for this section were 85/100.
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After the competition had finished, we had group photos with the other 13 teams who had come from across Australia. We did not pick up any encouragement awards this year however placed 2nd overall in the competition. This again was an amazing feeling to even be placed in this huge competition.
We received t-shirts for placing and celebrated that night with a delicious dinner at a restaurant.
The rest of the trip included a trip to Echuca for shopping, watching the feature Ayrshire show, the brown swiss and guernsey show and the Jersey show. This trip was a great experience for everyone involved and gave the chance for us to learn about showing in Australia. We were able to notice the differences between showing in Australia and in New Zealand. A big thank you to Jersey NZ, Julie Pirie, Alison Gibb, Wendy Harker and Kylie Gread for making this trip possible.
Feature Photo:
(First row, L to R) – Monique Radford, Izzy Radford, Danika Beardsall, Jacoba Gread, Hannah Nicholson.
(Second Row, L to R) – Brad Seager, Ella Pirie, Thomas Jeyes,
Robyn Gordon, Jay Seebeck.
This article was first seen by Jersey NZ Members through their mail boxes in March 2020. To receive your copy of the Jersey Focus magazine, you no longer need to be a member, simply subscribe to the yearly subscription.