Waikato youngster Zoe Botha and her four-legged bovine friends have been cleaning up calf club and A&P shows for the last decade.
Now the sprightly teen is getting ready to step up into the technical and demanding role of judging.
It is Botha’s first year training as a Calf Club NZ judge and she is looking forward to helping and learning from qualified judge Katrina Silvester as they make their way around farms in the Hamilton north area.
“I’ve taken part in calf club for so long I thought I’d take a step up and look at the younger generation and learn from the qualified judges and adults,” Botha says.
Botha lives on a 200ha dairy farm at Rotoorangi with her parents Melanie and Sean who contract milk 480 Friesian and Friesian-cross cows.
The 17-year-old Cambridge High School student will be helping Silvester judge 16 children on nine farms from Hamilton north to Tuakau.
She is nervous but really excited to learn more about judging calf club, which she first entered as a primary school student in 2009 with her Friesian calf named Rosebud. The pair had immediate success winning reserve leading and reserve champion rearing.
From 2009 until the 2015-16 season Botha has won nearly 300 ribbons at calf clubs, including school, group day and A&P shows.
During the 2015-16 season alone Botha and her Jersey calf Toffee Pop, leased from Julie Pirie, won a staggering 121 ribbons and trophies.
Together they won 11 grand champion calf and three reserve grand champion calf ribbons.
“Every year I started progressing and doing more active things with my calf and I kept getting better placings and getting championship ribbons and going to more A&P shows and more competitions,” she says.
Botha competed at her last school calf club in 2015 and has since been competing in up to 10 pedigree shows a year, first with leased animals and more recently with her two young Holstein/Friesians Kimberley and Kaylani and two Ayrshire cows called Glitta and Macey.
She also owns a Holstein/Friesian calf called Kalaya.
Botha says it will take lots of confidence and knowledge to be a good judge in the three classes of leading, rearing and grooming and dairy or beef types.
She’ll be looking for good confirmation in the calves along with top-notch grooming and a strong bond between calf and child.
Her next steps are to become a qualified judge when she leaves school in the next couple of years and to travel to an Australian dairy farm to gain experience and see how things work over there.
She is also heading to the Hawke’s Bay Royal A&P Show from October 23 to 25.
Her advice for contestants is to have fun and set some goals and go from there.
“The key is to spend time with your animal and create a special bond.”
There will be two sets of judging for each category – a social judging and a formal judging.
Every entry has automatically been entered into the social judging and when children submitted their entries they could put themselves into the formally judged category.
Every child who has entered the formal judging will be visited on-farm where judges will have an in-depth look at the calf’s leading capabilities and conformation.
Tips for the big day
You need to train your calf to do three things on the lead – to walk forward alongside you, to turn when required and to stop.
Start with a few minutes training each day.
After each session praise and pat your calf. Keep training the calf every day and keep it covered all the time so its coat is as shiny as possible on the day.
On the day have all of your equipment clean and ready for judging.
You will need:
• A bucket with washing equipment so you can spot-clean any dirty marks off your calf;
• A grooming brush and a soft cloth for polishing around nose, eyes and general coat before you go into the ring;
• A clean halter and lead rope;
• A separate water bucket so your calf can have a drink and;
• Some meal and a feeding container so you can give your calf some reward after a good effort.
Remember, you are on display as well as your calf so be sure you are also dressed neat and tidy and enjoy yourself because the judges will be looking for signs that you are comfortable with and care for your calf.
Give your calf lots of hugs and pats for a job well done.
Good luck.
