Antipodean and British judges announced for Borderway UK Dairy Expo 2018

This high acclaimed event is now a firm fixture in the dairy industry calendar and a significant showcase for British dairy genetics.

Over 7,000 visitors attended last year, illustrating the importance and support it now enjoys across the industry.

Taking place at the Borderway Exhibition Centre, organisers Harrison and Hetherington have secured a world class line up of judges in 2018, all who are recognised in the dairy industry for their immense experience and knowledge.

The four headline judges are Selwyn Donald from New Zealand, Dean Malcolm from Australia, Alan Timbrell from England and Ann Laird from Scotland.

With 380 head of cattle set to take to the stage in over 70 classes, the judges will have the difficult task of placing the absolute best of UK dairy genetics.

Commenting on the judge appointments for 2018, David Pritchard, event organiser and operations director at Harrison and Hetherington, said: “Borderway UK Dairy Expo attracts the UK’s finest selection of livestock and exhibitors and we are thrilled to attract such high calibre judges. I want to express my thanks to them for their huge support and look forward to welcoming them to Cumbria and our spectacle of British dairy genetics.”

The task of judging the Holstein, Ayrshire and Brown Swiss classes, will be the responsibility of Selwyn Donald. Selwyn and his partner Lorraine, own the 400 head Arran herd of Ayrshires in New Zealand. Selwyn has an incredible list of judging duties to his name and is New Zealand’s most travelled judge of any breed.

He has exhibited also at many shows throughout New Zealand and won supreme of the breed at the 2016 NZ Dairy Event in both the Ayrshire and combined breeds section. Selwyn is the only exhibitor to have won the intermediate championship in the Holstein, Ayrshire, Jersey and combined breeds sections. Selwyn is very involved with his family’s semen company who are responsible for marketing genetics from Cogent, Alta Genetics, Semenzoo, Intermizoo, Jet Stream, OHG and Genetics Australia.

Australia’s Dean Malcolm judging the Dairy Shorthorn, Jersey and Red and White Show is the co-owner/operator of Bluechip Genetics and industry publication CrazyCow. Well known throughout the world for his BlueChip Prefix, Dean, with wife Diane, dispersed the herd in October 2016 for an Australasian record gross and average for a one day dispersal.

Alan Timbrell, a partner in Millford Ayrshire’s and Fordmill Holstein’s will be judging the National British Friesian show. He currently works for Alta Genetics as their national key account manager in the UK and is the Ayrshire Cattle Society’s breed heritage chairman and West Midland Holstein Club president.

Commenting on being invited to judge at this year’s event, Alan said: “It is a great honour to be asked to judge The National Friesian Show at the Carlisle Expo 2018 which I am very much looking forward to.”

The showmanship classes will be judged by Ann Laird, who is currently the solutions co-ordinator for Semex UK and is one of the UK’s rising stars in the judging ring. Ann has played an integral role in the development of the Blythbridge Holstein herd both on the farm and in the show ring.

Ann is proud to add UK Dairy Expo to her list of judging assignments and is looking forward to working with the very best young handlers in the UK in March. In addition to the dairy breed classes, the Borderway UK Dairy Expo will also highlight the many leading and innovation organisations that steer the dairy industry, including the latest technologies and developments from nutrition, genetics, animal health, machinery and breed society stands.

Proof to the continued success of Borderway UK Dairy Expo is the support from the sponsors: Holstein UK, Clydesdale Bank, Carrs Billington, Farmers Guardian and Norbrook.