Delilah was judged supreme champion dairy female (all breeds) at the 2017 Dorrigo Show, but there’s more to her than that.

She was purchased by Andrew Marks of Fernbrook during the dispersal sale of McDonald’s Kenarie Jersey Stud in Murwillumbah.

Earlier this year Pat McDonald’s property was ravaged by the record Tweed River flood, which killed 17 of his top cows.

Delilah was more fortunate. She was washed 500m downstream and managed to gain ground on Malcolm Brown’s neighbouring cane farm.

Was she the luckiest cow in Pat’s herd? Definitely not.

Another cow was washed away into one of Malcolm’s largest paddocks of standing cane. No one knew she was there and she could not find her way out.

Twenty-four days later this cow escaped the maze and made her way home.

“I don’t know how she survived without an adequate water supply,” Pat said.  “She would have got some fluid from morning dew and cane but she had no access to normal water.”

 Was she the luckiest of Pat’s cows? By no means.

Thirty-four days after the flood, another of Pat’s missing cows emerged from a cane field and came back to Kenarie.

Trailing behind her was a young calf, which had been born while her mother was trapped in the cane.

So it’s not surprising that Delilah took out Supreme Dairy Champion in Dorrigo, as obviously the cows from the Kenarie stud take some beating.