Breeding and showing Jersey dairy cows has been in the DNA of Tuatapere’s Bennett family for three generations, ever since those girls with their lush, long eyelashes wooed in their grandfather, ‘Digger’ Bennett, who began showing them almost 80 years ago.

Digger literally won hundreds of show ribbons in his day and it’s now grandson Jason’s turn, who began showing cows as a small child with his father, Neville, who sadly passed away on Invercargill A & P Show Day when Jason was nine.

Neville was also a champion shower and one of Jason’s lasting memories was proudly watching his dad being presented with his Southland Otago Jersey Club Life Membership on his hospital bed at Southland Hospital.

Grandad Digger was also a Life Member of the Jersey Club and the Waiau A & P Show and served 20 years on the NZ Jersey Council.

Next year the Bennetts celebrate 80 years of involvement in the Waiau A & P Show.

It’s always been a family affair and Jason’s mum Olive, now in her mid-80s, reluctantly received her Southland Otago Jersey Club Life Membership at the Waiau Show several weeks ago (14 February), renowned for decades of devotion behind the scenes where she likes to remain.

Jason with his Grandad Digger. Photo: Supplied

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Known in the local community as ‘Nana’, Olive’s legendary bacon and egg pie and chocolate fudge are must haves at the show where Jason says she’s been beavering away feeding judges and marshals from the kitchen for more than 60 years.

“She’s had to step back a lot, but she was always helping feed calves and get the cows in for us until she was 80,” Jason says.

“Mum’s never been keen on the spotlight, or being in the ring, just being in the shed getting the animals ready and providing home baking, sandwiches and cups of tea and coffee."

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"She’s just that person."

"She was always in the background getting the hard yards done.”

Olive was overwhelmed with the special award at the recent show, which brought loud rounds of applause and cheers from the crowd, all her five kids, 11 grandchildren and six great grandchildren present.

“There were tears coming down,” Jason says.

“If anyone deserves an award it’s Mum. She’s such a kind, hardworking person – the rock of this family, and was always solely committed to Dad,” Jason says.

Neville also played in the local Tuatapere dance band with the likes of Jimmy Kirkpatrick and Art Diack.

Jason’s dad. Photo: Supplied

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Olive’s reaction was typical: “Aww, I don’t need that!” But the community reckons she did.

“I was shocked when they read this all out over the microphone,” she says.

“We really dropped her in it,” Jason grins.

Olive was presented with a beautiful pink rose in a pot and a Life Membership brooch.

These days she assures her baking is reserved for show days with lolly cake, chocolate chippie and sultana biscuits also big winners.

“I told them this year that’s the last year you’re getting it,” she chuckles.

Bennetts, past and present, have long been a force to be reckoned with in the southern show ring, and Jason’s earliest memories are dressed in his official white jacket leading calves in the ring with Dad and Grandad.

There have been hundreds more championship ribbons and awards since then with Jason specialising in the herdsperson section, judged on the presentation of the person and their animal.

“Our kids do that now,” he says.

Jason, at rear, with his family, sisters, front left, Alison, then from left, Linsey, Gayleen, mum Olive and Maxine. Photo: Supplied

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Showing has become less of a thing with large corporates taking over Southland dairy farms.

Sadly, A & P Shows are slowly dying, Jason says, but he’s hopeful that those family genetics will keep coming through.

“People just want cows in the shed for milking and then back in the paddock and ready to milk now.”

With robotics heading to the farm, it’s even more likely to lose popularity, he says.

The Southland Otago Jersey Club does much of its showing on farm now sending judges to the various properties to check the animals.

The Southland A & P Show is on next weekend (7 March) but there are no longer many animal classes judged at the Invercargill A & P Show, all done on farm, Jason says.

Bennetts, including Jason and his four siblings - sister Linsey and her husband, their two daughters farming just down the road from Jason and wife Kaylene, with their five children, have won near on a thousand medals over the years.

“We had to throw out hundreds of ribbons that were found in Grandad’s house, dating back to 1959 – champion bulls, calves, yearlings and cows,” Jason says.

Digger wasn’t bad at growing Southland spuds either - a champion grower of Red Kings and King Edwards for some 50 years, Jason’s dad getting in on that too.

“They sold seed spuds all the way to Outram. They were in demand.”

Shows may be losing interest, but the Bennett family will be doing their best to keep showing alive.

Jason and Kaylene recently received a special medal from the Winton A & P Association for their popular ‘Adopt A Calf’ programme that they run for local schoolkids.

It’s all about giving the townies and those inexperienced on farms a taste of rural life, by adopting calves and teaching the kids how to care for and show them.

“We run it annually through the Waiau Area School and Hauroko Valley Primary School, “Jason says.

“The kids learn to feed a calf and look after it then take it to shows."

"They’re each assigned a calf to care for nine weeks."

"They come up to the farm one evening a week after school to groom it, feed it and teach it to walk in the ring. It’s a real opportunity for townie kids to experience rural life."

"They get to know that milk doesn’t just come from the shop.”

The youngest in the programme is a three-year-old boy and the oldest is 17.

“The three-year-old just loves it."

"We put two leads on the calf and he just loves it."

"He has a smile that wide and always wants to see the tractors. He’s just a joy,” Jason says.

“Both Kaylene and I have been farming since we were in nappies and we know how important it is to have that next generation of kids to come along and have a shot, giving them the right opportunity and the right know-how.”

They also run workshops for older kids on the family farms, where various rural companies are represented to encourage young people into rural careers.

“It’s all I’ve ever known and I’m very passionate about it. I’d like to see younger people give it a go,” Jason says.

“I just love the Jerseys and dairy farming."

"It’s a hard job, on stormy nights when you wish you had an office job, but on a nice, sunny day you couldn’t think of anything better.”