FOLLOWING in the footsteps of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, sisters Courtney and Tegan Afford, Woods Point, are well into preparation for this year’s Holstein feature breed showing at the Royal Adelaide Show.
For most of their lives, the siblings have made the annual trip to Wayville, leading the family’s Billabong Holstein cattle in the showring since the age of eight.
This year the Affords will take five heifers and four in-milk cows to Adelaide – three from the Billabong stud and six from Courtney’s own stud, Hollow Brook Holsteins, established about three years ago.
Courtney, 19, is in her first year of an Animal Science degree at the University of Adelaide. Between finishing school and starting university, she spent her gap year at National Herd Development, working with a range of local dairy farms.
Tegan, 15, is a major part of the Murray Bridge High School show team. This year the school will exhibit four dairy heifers at Adelaide, with Tegan teaching her classmates to lead.
In October, she will represent SA in the national junior handling competition at the Royal Geelong Show in Vic.
Their interest in the dairy operations is not just limited to showtime.
They are both involved in the calf rearing, as it fits in well with their school and university hours, while Courtney has increasingly taken on a larger role in the breeding decisions, sharing sire selections with father Steven.
“I’d always ‘strongly suggested’ with breeding but in probably the past two years I’ve picked most of (the sires),” she said.
Dairy and showing was always in their lives while growing up, with their passion growing from there.
“Our parents and grandparents gave us these opportunities,” Courtney said.
“Now we drag them to shows,” Tegan said.
Part of the appeal is the social aspect.
“With some people, it’s the only time we see them in the year,” Courtney said.
“You’ve got blood family and you’ve got show family.”
The show also serves as a way to benchmark their breeding goals.
“The whole thing about the show is comparing your cows to others,” Courtney said. “At a show you may see a few cows at the top of the class from a bull that has been really consistent, and decide to try them.”
Another important point of the show for the siblings is the opportunity to serve as something of an ambassador for their industry.
“There is a disjoint between the city and country and the show is a chance to answer some questions,” Courtney said.
“I think we take it for granted and don’t realise some people don’t know that milk doesn’t come from a carton but it’s great that (the public) aren’t afraid to ask stuff.”
WITH close to 70 years of breeding history, Billabong Holsteins, Woods Point, and the Afford family that operate the stud, are well-known to most in the industry.
Billabong was established in 1949 by Fred Afford, then at Wandearah, with the stud making its debut at the Royal Adelaide Show in 1952.
Fred’s son Bob was 12 years old when he first paraded at Adelaide.
In 2014, he marked 60 years of exhibiting in Adelaide – having not missed a show since 1954.
Bob’s passion for exhibiting cattle is so great, he even spent some of his honeymoon at the show after marrying wife Gloria in 1963.
This enthusiasm for the dairy industry and exhibiting has also been passed on through the generations to sons Steven and Greg, and his grandchildren.
Steven and Greg still work within the farm, with Steven looking after the 170 stud cows while Greg manages a property at Brinkworth for hay and grain production.
Fourth generation Affords, Courtney and Tegan, have increasingly taken on responsibility for the show team.
For the past few years the sisters have selected the cows, broken them in, then fed, washed, clipped and exhibited them at local and interstate shows.
“If it wasn’t for those two, we wouldn’t be at the show,” Bob said.
They recently welcomed the newest Afford – 10-month-old Jayden.
Gloria said they were excited for their great-grandson to be the fifth generation involved in Billabong.