A `brilliant' show in Kaitaia

Lamborghini leads the field in the first sheep race of the day. Picture / Peter Jackson

Kaitaia A&P Association president Jim Burrough had one word to describe Saturday's 132nd show — brilliant.

Light rain in the morning, which gave an Australian dairy judge the chance to wear the raincoat that normally serves to keep her warm playing croquet in northern Victoria, gave way to a slight overcast with a cooling breeze for much of the day, although some parents looked as though they had had enough by home time.

The show, unlike some post Mycoplasma bovis, featured both beef and dairy cattle, although numbers were not spectacular, and the horse fields were a shadow of those in the show's hey day, although standards were as high as ever.

The hall at Te Ahu was busy too, the highlights including indoor secretary Val McGregor winning the trophy for most points in cooking for the 19th consecutive year.

"It's time someone else had a go now," she said, opening the door for kitchen whizzes in 2021.

Raewyn Taylor, the convivial trans-Tasman dairy judge, was a little surprised to find herself presiding.

She had come back to the North, as she does on a regular basis, to visit Takahue dairy farmer Gavin Travers, who accepted some embryos from her when she and her husband Ross left Hukerenui for browner pastures.

Mr Travers had gained one heifer calf from those embryos, and Mrs Taylor continues to take a keen interest in her.

And, having arrived safe and sound, she was informed that she might as well judge.

Meanwhile the best crowd in a couple of years paid at the gates, in part perhaps thanks to free rides for kids from go to whoa and other attractions ranging from a petting zoo to sheep races and live music, and culinary offerings from kūmara chips to Bob Coates' (ex Bushman's Hut) hogs in logs.