On the road again

Pictured above is a sea of commercial black Angus heifer calves at a saleyard in the Hawke’s Bay, snapped by Amy.

Rural vet Amy Hoogenboom has been enjoying her travels around New Zealand as well as a return to judging cattle in the ring.

It’s been year with my national client base having seen me travel from Whangarei to Otautau, and just about everywhere in between already this year. I’m writing this column from Golden Bay while listening to the welcome sound of rain on the roof, of which I do hope there might be some falling at home in Canterbury, along with many other parts of the country which looked despondently dry during May.
One of the incredible things about this job is the wonderful pockets of rural New Zealand I get to visit which I would have most likely never travelled to otherwise. As well as the amazing people that are found in these places, I have enjoyed getting to meet a wide variety of people, learning about their farming journeys, what they are striving to achieve within their business and how I can help contribute to that from my role with Zoetis Genetics.
Molly, my wee Collie cross dog, and number one travelling companion is also enjoying the adventures too. After having always travelled with me while working as a vet, she also demands to join me on most farm visits in the new job too. She’s always a bit of a talking point with farmers when I open up the car boot but at 15 years old she’s fairly easy going, and as long as she gets to go where I’m going, she is happy.
I have only managed to get seriously lost once, unfortunately it happened to be the day I had our director of services out visiting clients with me for the day . . . oh dear. It turns out this particular client’s farms spanned both sides of the road and their house was not down past the sale barn like I thought at all. After 10 minutes of scenic touring round the farm and battling with Canterbury’s atrocious cell phone reception we got hold of the farmer and navigated our way to the farm house down and across the road where we needed to go. From here on, I have ensured that I have very clear directions as well as an address when going on farm visits.

“I have only managed to get seriously lost once, unfortunately it happened to be the day I had our director of services out visiting clients with me for the day. . .” 

The local Oxford A&P show was held over Easter weekend. This year’s baking efforts were a downright disaster, the chocolate cake was baked
in a rush the night before and in my hastiness, while I remembered the baking powder, I forgot the baking soda. This left me with a cake that rose but was rather dense and with no time to bake another, we will have to wait another year to see if we can achieve that first place chocolate cake that still evades me. Luckily, I redeemed my show day performance with a win in the photography section and the horse picked up a few ribbons prancing round the ring.
In addition, 2021 has seen me return to the cattle show ring, judging at a few Canterbury shows and more recently as the judge for the Handler competition at the Future Beef NZ Hoof & Hook competition. It is wonderful to see this event celebrate its 15th year of educating and encouraging young beef enthusiasts into our industry with record participant numbers. This event is where my interest and passion for beef cattle was sparked from and it created so many opportunities for me, so it was a privilege to be back and involved with the event once. Great credit must go to those volunteers and event sponsors for their efforts in ensuring this event continues to run.
In May, I had an early start with just over 200 head of cattle to DNA samples for testing through our new tool for commercial beef breeders. With six weeks of bull sales also on the horizon, this means it is time to wrap this column up and head to bed. If you spot me at a sale this season, don’t be afraid to come up and say hi, I always enjoy meeting those of you who read my columns.