The 2019 season is about to kick off for the Youth Development programme again,
This year will be a busy and exciting year for young members.
We have 2 YDP workshops/field days planned throughout the year.
The first one will be on the farm of the well-known Fellfort Angus herd of Ben and Elaine Ryall, and the date planned is the 20th of July
The second event will be west of Ireland on the farm of Donal Spring and Geraldine Shanley at Bornacoola, Co Leitrim Date to be confirmed
Both herds will have a lot to offer our young people in terms of scale and how they run their pedigree herds
Both events will have a top class display of animals as well as a lot of extra stands for information and YDP events to include stock judging . handling, clipping, grooming, guessing weights, advising on key traits,
Fellfort Angus
The Ryall’s run a large pedigree Angus herd near Watergrass hill in Co Cork and in recent years have switched to all autumn calving to ease their work load in spring and also to have a stronger bull to sell to their customers at the right time to match the spring breeding season.
Both Ben and Elaine are prominent judges at several shows both here in Ireland and overseas they have judged the all-Ireland Finals in Iverk on two occasions.
We feel their input and experience to our young members on the day will be a very worthwhile experience and are inviting you all to put this date of July 20th into your dairy and phone so save the date now!
Aughnamona Angus
This herd is run by Donal Spring and Geraldine Shanley in Co Leitrim and once again is a top-class larger herd with traditional angus cows. Donal works off farm in Dublin and still manages to run an efficient successful business in Co Leitrim with a farm manager running the day to day business on the farm. Donal has recently upgraded his facilities to stream line work practices and make running the farm easier.
Once we confirm the date, we will let you know so watch out for this wonderful event in co Leitrim.
We will also have a dedicated safety section to this year’s events showing best practice for young people and will have safety events to suit all ages
New skills
This year we are adding a new skill for YDP members.
This will involve picking out the best possible breeding stock for replacements out of a pen of 10 heifers, with access to ICBF information, birth weights of calves and so on, whoever picks out the best 4 will be in line for a nice prize of €100
The YDP committee are planning to have at least 6 shows this year running young handler classes and being judged by our three Junior judges’ details on these shows are to be decided
1 Athlone
2 Ossary
3 Charleville
4 Boniconlon
5 Dualla
6 Iverk
All Ireland Finals
As well as these shows our All Ireland Finals will be held in Strokestown in September
Consisting of three classes
junior – under 13 –
Intermediate 13- 18-year olds
Senior- 18-25-year olds
With increased cash prizes we want to raise exhibitor numbers at the event this year in each class
We are asking all YDP members to register for 2019 with Jim Dockery YDP secretary and are introducing a charge of €10 per member and a family rate of €30 for over three.
Deadline for registering is 20th August, 2019
Each registered member will be given a show starter pack to set them off on their show season.
Currently we are working on producing a video on clipping, grooming and showmanship skills for Young handlers
For further information contact Jim Dockery on 086/2569925 or email jdockery@towraangus.com YDP secretary
Or Colin Duffy YDP chairman 087/6902160