Kit Davidson, left, with Tamzin Bell, both from Blighty, with cattle to be shown in International Dairy Week at Tatura.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
A contingent of locals have teamed up to take on International Dairy Week together this week.
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While technically competitors in some categories, Kit Davidson, Ian Griffiths and his family, and Anthony Michael and his family have made their way to Tatura as a group to take on some of the best dairy producers from across the country.
International Dairy Week is considered to be Australia’s premier dairy event.
The competition began on Saturday, and will conclude Thursday.
Kit said heading to the competition as a team came about organically through their existing friendships and partnerships.
“I judged a local on farm challenge for jerseys, and I told Anthony he had to take this particular jersey to Tatura. I even offered to take it for him,” Kit said.
“He then said he had a calf he wanted to take as well.
“The jerseys have been getting ready at Yurunga Farms, where I work.
“And then there is my neighbour Ian Griffiths and his family, who are quite enthusiastic about producing top quality cows.
“I do most of the fitting of the cows (clipping etc) and we all share the leading responsibilities.
“We’ll also have help from Tamzin Bell, and my mum Gillian Davidson will make the trip from Wagga to take night shift until I wake at 3.30am to get ready for each day.”
Kit has taken two of her own cows to Tatura - a purchased holstein and a brown Swiss she bred herself.
She said up until about a month ago, neither was showing any promise of being part of the show team.
“The holstein, Princess, is from a very famous family made famous by Eclipse Genetics,” she said.
“She’s really a late inclusion because she calved in with twins (born in October), but has really got going again in the last month.
“She is probably still not quite at her peak but is very respectable, and will be entered in the senior three year-old.
“It takes cows to recover after twins, because it really sucks the life out of them.
“In the past six weeks she’s got back a fullness in the mid section and is milking harder.”
Kit said she also wavered on taking Princess because she will go head-to-head with Ian’s entry in the same category.
“I really like the look of Ian’s cow, but then he likes the look of mine,” she said.
Tamzin Bell with Kit Spark Shannon, Kit Davidson’s promising brown Swiss calf.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Born in mid-August, Kit said her brown Swiss calf, Shannon, is a “sweet cow”.
“She is a little on the stubborn side, but she is a little tank.
“She’ll be one of the youngest calves there, and will will be entered in the main brown Swiss show.”
Kat has been participating in International Dairy Week for 20 years, starting when she was just 12.
While she can no longer recall the exact years of her wins, she said her best results to date include winning a reserve champion cow ribbon in the Youth Show and a junior champion with a brown Swiss heifer she had bred herself.
“I also had some luck a few years a go with a cow in partnership I had with Adam and Lindsay Marshall, in the senior holstein, but there really is something special about the win with the brown Swiss heifer,” she said.
“It means a bit more when it is one you’ve bred yourself.”
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