Owner of champion Charolais gives insight into show days

Michael Carey’s pedigree Charolais heifer, Chanonstown Such A Cutie, won first in her class and then went on to be crowned with the National Senior Heifer Calf Champion title at the Irish Charolais National Show in Elphin, County Roscommon on September 24.

Farming in Sion Hill, Killucan, Michael gives an insight into the work that goes on behind show day, and what it takes to breed a prize-winning heifer.

The 24-year-old is the youngest of a family six and graduated with a Level 8 degree in Sustainable Agriculture from DKIT in 2020.

Farming since “I could walk”, Michael has been showing pedigree Charolais since he was 11.

“I started at local shows with my brother Ronan and then in 2014 I started my own herd of pedigrees Charolais,” Michael said, adding that he has a “day-job”, as well as farming in the mornings and evenings with his father – also called Michael Carey.

“I showed one of the first heifers that I bought, Sion Hill Helga, at a lot of shows during 2014 and got a lot of first prizes with her, then her first calf was the Senior Champion bull at the premier Charolais sale in 2017. So, I was really hooked after that.

“My brother has since dispersed his herd of Charolais, but I still have my own herd, called Chanonstown Charolais, that I farm alongside my dad and his herd of commercial suckler-bred cattle.

“In truth, I wouldn’t be successful at shows or sales with my cattle if it wasn’t for my father giving me a hand and his advice. He’s been buying, selling, breeding and hauling cattle all his life.

“My mam, Sarah Carey, also keeps us level headed and helps calm the storm if our tempers ever rise when we are dealing with cattle at home – which can happen the odd time! I’d really be lost without their wisdom.

National show

“The National Charolais Show is advertised as a one-day event but as every farmer that shows cattle knows, it can turn out to be more of a two-day event. It starts the day before the show when the two Charolais heifers that I planned to show had to be taken in from the fields into a bedded shed and fed on hay in order to get them into show condition.

“Then the simple things have to be done,” said Michael, such as washing the trailer, packing up hay for the day, cleaning up and polishing the halters, cutting up the white Charolais soap – “hair gel for cattle” – into workable blocks for their coat dressing, cleaning and ironing the white shirts and show coats, “making sure all the essential combs and tools are in the show box and ensuring all the paperwork is ready and in order”.

After a late night getting things ready, there is no rest the next day.

“Seeing that the show was in Elphin Mart in Roscommon, a good journey away in a jeep and trailer, it resulted in an early start,” he said, adding that he has the heifers washed, dried off and haltered up by 4am, and loaded on the trailer by 5am on the of the show.

“My father and I set off for Elphin Mart once we got a good cup of tea to kickstart our heads. We arrived and got settled in to our pens in the mart by 7am. Then it was time to get a bucket of water, shampoo and a sponge and clean off any dirt picked up while in transit.”

Cattle barber

Michael uses a blow drier to dry the hair on the two heifers, making sure the hair is “good and fluffy” for the next step, which is applying the Charolais soap to get their hair to “stick up”.

“When you have most of the hair standing from their feet to their head, you can get a good look at what hair you have to clip and cut. This is when you basically become a cattle barber. The main areas are on their top line, under their belly, the tops of their tails and any other wild hair on their body. This leaves them looking neater and tidier in their appearance.”

Another quick run over with the blow drier removes any hair clippings and also dries in the Charolais soap to help their hair look like it is groomed and standing up naturally.

“After that, it’s time for the baby talcum powder, applied all over their coats to make them look whiter and give their hair more volume and thickness. The final touch is to brush up and back-comb all the hair at the bottom of their tail to get it all puffy and apply plenty of hairspray to hold it firm,” said Michael.

Before they enter the show ring, one heifer has clean halters placed on her, to make her look “more presentable”.

“The handler also has to put on a white shirt and tie and a white show coat. After all that, I was fortunate to have one heifer come first and another come fourth in a large class of heifers,” said Michael.

Michael then has to wait till the end of the day to show the heifer in the Senior Heifer Champion Class to compete with other first prize winners.

“Unexpectedly, but delightedly my heifer Chanonstown Such a Cutie was tapped out as the All-Ireland Senior Female Calf Champion. For me, that was the equivalent of getting an All-Ireland medal in Croke Park,” he said.

“Once the day is done, we travel home, I get the power washer and clean off all their make-up and all my hard morning’s work to leave them back looking normal once again. They are let back out into their field in Sion Hill, Killucan and ‘Such a Cutie’ could proudly walk around the field having won an All-Ireland title. From the outside looking in, it probably seems like a fool’s game, but it’s a game I’m fond of.

“You’re not going to win every day, that’s for sure! But when you do, it makes the whole job worthwhile.”