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Aug 27, 2023

Bringing the Fun Back at the Eastern NY Summer Jersey Show

PUBLISHED ON August 14, 2023 GREENWICH, N.Y. — If you are looking for a high-competition yet super fun show to attend, I can’t recommend enough the Eastern NY Summer Jersey Show. Besides a great

PUBLISHED ON August 14, 2023

GREENWICH, N.Y. — If you are looking for a high-competition yet super fun show to attend, I can’t recommend enough the Eastern NY Summer Jersey Show. Besides a great Jersey show, there are fun contests, creative awards, and lots of free stuff for youth exhibitors. The 2023 Eastern NY Summer Jersey Show proved to be quite entertaining and very memorable.

The Udder Chaos Show Team attended and helped put on this year’s Jersey show. A dairy show filled with Jersey flops, fun Hawaiian shirts, lots of trips to Twist of Fate, and as always, a large string of cows. Read on to learn about the show that puts the fun back into showing and how the Udder Chaos Show Team helps make it all happen.

Besides the vast number of high-quality Jerseys that go through the ring, there are quite a few fun contests and prizes that make the show a blast to attend. This year, we had the Jersey flop contest, the Hawaiin shirt contest, and jackpot prizes for every class! So, it didn’t matter if you placed first, you still had the opportunity to win something.

My favorite contest by far is the Jersey flop contest. We all know how Jerseys do the stereotypical “Jersey flop” where they go stiff and throw themselves on their side. At the ENYS Jersey Show, the first Jersey to flop in the ring wins a prize!

We started this contest last year with Marty Depaul winning it during the first class of the day. His prize was a brush with the words “#1 Jersey Flop” written on it. This year, we were scared we wouldn’t have a contest winner because we made it through all the calf classes without a flop occurring in the ring. However, during the Jr. 3-year-old class, Mason Ziemba’s cow did the biggest Jersey flop I had ever seen. Unfortunately, no one caught the flop on camera, but those who saw it will likely not forget it! Mason won a $20 gift card to Tractor Supply for the epic flop.

We love to try to make our show bright and fun! To do so we hold a Hawaiin shirt contest for the open show. This year, we had quite a few entrants walk through the ring and watch from the stands rocking a Hawaiin shirt! To enter this contest is very simple, just show up to the show in a Hawaiin shirt (you don’t even have to show to enter) and at the end of the show a winner is picked.

We love seeing everyone in their Hawaiian shirts and can’t wait to see even more people wearing colorful shirts next year!

Every time you walk into the ring, you have the opportunity not just to win the class, but also to win a jackpot prize no matter where you end up in the final pull. The placing that will receive a prize is randomly selected before the show and written down on index cards that are then given to the Dairy Princesses. Jackpot winners won a selection of prizes including brushes, grain scoops, halters, hoof polish, and more!

Showing is supposed to be fun. A lot of the time at larger shows, kids have a lot of pressure on them and end up not always having fun in the ring or before the show. The ENYS Jersey Show tries its best to make the show as fun as possible for youth exhibitors by providing them with lots of free stuff and cool show shirts.

This year, every youth exhibitor received a free bucket, halter, a gift certificate for 1 free slushie from Reggie’s Veggies, and a $20 gift certificate to Twist of Fate. They also received a fun tie-dyed ENYS Jersey Show shirt to wear in the ring.

We also allow kids to have helpers in the ring if needed. If their perfect show cow is having a spunky day, they can still go in the ring knowing they won’t get hurt because they can have someone by their side helping them. First-time showmen sometimes get nervous and that is okay! Showing should be fun and we whole-heartedly believe that at our show.

This year, we had about 176 entries for the Jersey Show; the highest number of entries we’ve had since we started the show 3 years ago! David Crack from Richmond, Quebec was this year’s judge and he did an excellent job being consistent, fair, and thorough with his placings. He brought a sense of fun to the show by smiling and being helpful to the youth in the ring. My favorite part about having him as a judge was the slow clap he started that sped up as he selected Grand Champion. Read more about how incredible David Crack is in our The Power of a Good Dairy Judge at Tri-County Holstein Show article.

This year’s Grand Champion of the open show went to Mer-James VIP Finny-ET (VIP) owned by Budjon & Peter Vail. Reserve Grand Champion went to Oakdale Little Kira-P (Prevue) owned by Brock, Anthony, Kennedy Liddle & Kaylee Wilson.

Grand Champion of the Youth Show went to Roc-N-Roll Piper (Reviresco) owned by Bailey Wright & Kristy Ellsworth. Reserve Grand Champion of the Youth Show went to BJ Texas Madrid (Texas) owned by Sarah Hill.

Thanks to the incredible sponsors, the ENYS Jersey show was able to hand out several incredible prizes. First to fifth place of every class all walked out of the ring with halters that matched the colors of their placings. First place youth of each class received a brush and the best udder of each class received a bottle of Udder Comfort.

Amongst the prizes handed out to champions and best breeders and exhibitors were:

I can’t wait to see what amazing prizes the Jersey show gives out next year!

The Udder Chaos Show team was there to take on the Jersey show with a large string of cows as always. There were many trips to Dunkin, lots of dancing to our new speaker, and lots of Celsius drinking (definitely a little too much by some of the younger crew who then struggled to go to sleep!).

Bridey Nolan and Shania Rowland took on the task of organizing all the show numbers for the entire show. It took them an extremely long time, so they deserve a shoutout for it! Little Maddie kept us on our toes as she took it upon herself to be the official grain scooper when it came time to mix up feed for the milk cows. Sure, Flaim may have gotten a few extra tidbits of random grain but it made Maddie happy so that’s all that matters.

Little Ollie was in charge of encouraging high fives and keeping the older kids on their toes with his random questions and sporadic karate chops. I was in charge of the many trips to Twist of Fate and always thinking about what we were going to eat. Tara kept the show rolling from behind the scenes and did a great job of fitting the cows.

The first class of the day we had our “getting showring ready” assembly line all set to go! All halters were on the animals (thanks Erick Harrington for punching new holes in halters so that everyone’s fit well) and every kid had their show clothes on. We pulled our three March calves out and lined them up and then went right down the line doing the finishing touches for the ring. Brushing, reviving, final misting, polishing hooves, cleaning ears, fluffing tails, and most importantly, fly spraying, all happened quickly as we got the kids off to the ring.

We had a great day at the ENYS Jersey Show. We had a few come really close to last, a few middle-of-the-packs, and some incredible 1st places! Ollie’s Polly won the Jr. 3-year-old class with Aunt Bridey on the halter. Maddie’s Flicker didn’t place well in her class but ended up winning the Jackpot prize with “Aunt Wawa” on the halter, putting a big smile on Maddie’s face.

Little Derek got third in the open show with his cow Vengeance, Lila managed to stay out of last with all of hers and Shania had a pretty decent day too. Corrina Aldrich had a really great day standing with a banner once, placing towards the top often, winning senior best three females, and receiving premier exhibitor!

I’m excited to see what the 2024 Eastern NY Summer Jersey Show will look like. If you have any suggestions for other fun contests, feel free to let us know. We are already looking to make our 4th annual show bigger, more fun, and better. So, be sure to enter next year for those fun Hawaiian vibes and a quality Jersey show competition.

Lila Nolan is a dairy farmer in White Creek, NY who works at Morning Ag Clips. She avidly attends dairy shows and draws from those experiences to write about the Udder Chaos that occurs.

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