Fieldays 2009

Fieldays Rural Bachelors ‘Check Out the Girls’

The eight Fieldays Rural Bachelor of the Year finalists ‘checked out the girls on the Village Green at Fieldays today, TOP (Traits Other than Production) classifying cows for the CRV AmBreed ‘The boys check out the girls’ heat.
CRV AmBreed brought a Holstein-Friesian cow and a Jersey cow into the very heart of the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest trade event for the heat.  The two breed societies were also represented - Tony O’Connor from the New Zealand Holstein-Friesian Association and Tim Sneddon from Jersey New Zealand taught the Bachelors how to classify cows for the heat and engaged in some friendly but fierce Holstein-Friesian versus Jersey ribbing together with CRV AmBreed’s Kevin Hart and The Radio Network’s Jenni Brown.

The boys judged the cows on capacity, rump angle, rump width, legs, udder support, front udder, rear udder, front teat placement, rear teat placement, udder overall and dairy conformation.  Co-compere, Kevin Hart, commented on the importance of classification and what it brings to the industry.  “Good conformation is not just about showing,” he said.  “Cows need to be well-built and strong to be great earners for commercial farmers.”

The Bachelor finalists were from a mix of occupations and showed that you didn’t need to be a dairy farmer to do the job well with fencing contractor, Michael Short from Palmerston North judged runner-up in the competition.  Grant Mitchell, a 37-year-old dairy farmer from Morrinsville, took out the heat, coming closest to the professional TOP Classifiers’ scores. 

Back at sites G29, F30, CRV AmBreed continued their celebrations of 40 years working with New Zealand farmers with special celebrations daily from 11am to noon along with a virtual bull parade, seminars and plenty for kids of all ages, including free, instant photos with ‘virtual-Pierre’.

CRV AmBreed is New Zealand’s second-largest supplier of artificial breeding products and services, offering a full range from dairy and beef semen and services through heat detection products and advice, herd testing and herd recording.