The 16-year-old Year 11 student started showing when she was just three, leading a calf that was bigger than her around the ring following her two older brothers. Now she is on her way to becoming a show judge, has her own Friesian stud, her eyes are firmly set on a future in the dairy industry, and this year she won the Holstein Friesian New Zealand All NZ Calf Class competition.
It was the first time she had entered and she beat the winners from the past two years Lorna Button, 14, of Balclutha and Alex Fullerton, 18, of Hamilton who were both in close contention.
To win she showed calves at nine A&P shows as far north as the Canterbury A&P Show in Christchurch, and competed at the NZ Dairy Event in Feilding.
Her prize is heifer calf Fairview Shadow Rae, donated by Lyndsay and Alison Trounce of Fairview Holstein Farm near Timaru, which brings her Maylea stud up to a total of 10 animals. And with nine to calve this year, including three heifers to sexed semen, she is looking forward to boosting her numbers.
Her animals are milked on her parents’ farm near Wyndham. While her dad Jock works as a builder in Gore, mum Helen milks 240 cows on 106ha (103ha effective).
Older brother Darren, 23, is contract milking at Riversdale and Clint, 21, is a herd manager at Mimihau, both nearby. Kate wants to follow in their footsteps once she finishes school at St Peter’s College in Gore.
“We all grew up in the dairy and that’s what I want to do too,” she said.
“They both have their own Friesian studs as well. I’ll do Primary ITO courses and that way I can learn as well as work at the same time. I want to stay in Southland. I like it here, although the weather can be a bit tough.”
After school and in the weekends and school holidays she juggles homework with relief milking for James and Lisa North at Mimihau and Stewart and Julia Eden at Balfour as well as helping mum out when she can.
“She’s doing all this plus getting really good grades at school as well,” Helen said.
Kate’s first cow, which she got when she was nine, was from the Fernlea Stud of Brian and Anne Perkins, Fernlea Camelot Sonya, and has so far only produced heifer calves.
“It was the one which tried to eat my pony tail. That’s how I chose her.”
Mum does the AI but Kate picks her own sires with the help of John Bannatyne of World Wide Sires and the company’s Mating software which uses the farmer’s breeding goals and selects the best sire for each animal, considering 16 traits as well as guarding against inbreeding and recessive genes.
Fairview Shadow Rose, donated by Lyndsay and Alison Trounce of Fairview Holstein Farm near Timaru, was Kate Cummings’ prize for winning the Holstein Friesian New Zealand All NZ Calf Class competition this year.
“I’m looking for bulls with high fertility traits as I have big cows. Sonya is 800kg, and they are harder to get in calf but I also want good stature and strength and a good udder and feet and legs.”
Showing a calf starts well before the first A&P show of the summer. Kate selects the animals and then gets them used to wearing a halter and being led and handled.
“A show is a very different environment for them. There are balloons and kids and other animals and they have to be settled.
“I feed them lots of hay as that gives them a fullness in the ribs. They get a special feed when they’re at shows. I want them looking their best.”
She’s lucky as within a two-hour drive of home is a multitude of shows including Winton, Gore, Wyndham, Balclutha, Taieri, Milton, and Tapanui.
“We usually spend Friday evening travelling to the show and getting set up then the show is Saturday and on Sunday we’re cleaning up and coming home. We usually sleep with the cows at the shows and we take turns doing the graveyard shift.”
“Clipping an animal can take two hours so there is a lot of work. Well, maybe an hour and a half depending on how well the animal behaves.”
The Edens are usually with her and it was one of their calves that she showed last summer to win the All NZ Calf Class competition.
“Mum is the secretary of the Southland Friesian Club and we got to know them through that. Stewart shows Friesian cows but his wife Julia likes showing beef. It used to be Dexters but now it’s South Devons. She got me leading a South Devon cow at the Canterbury A&P Show and I didn’t know there was a different way of leading beef. She was gesturing to me from the other side of the ring to hold it differently. And I had to carry a stick in the other hand but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with it.”
Kate is firmly in the Friesian camp although Jersey breeders have tried in the past to get her to change.
“I like Friesians. They’re big and strong and they do well in Southland.”
Helen had showed Ayrshires before she was married and got back into showing when the kids were little as a family activity off-farm.
Now Kate is learning to be a judge and reached associate status this year, proving she can score an animal, give the reasons why, and talk into a microphone announcing the results.
“It means I can now walk in the steps of the senior judges.”
