A fantastic lineup of judges has been finalised for the coloured breed classes at UK Dairy Day taking place on Wednesday 13th September in Telford.

The judging of the Dairy Shorthorn, Guernsey and Jersey classes will take place first thing on the morning of the event attracting cattle entries from across the UK.

Dairy Shorthorn Judge: Gwyndaf James

Gwyndaf James has been chosen by the Dairy Shorthorn Society to judge, travelling from Ceredigion.

Gwyndaf has been involved with agriculture since leaving school to work on the family farm with a herd of Dairy Shorthorns and Holstein Friesians. The family started showing Shorthorns in 1973, winning the Royal Welsh on numerous occasions and Breed Champion at the Royal of England in 1980 and Reserve in 1987 as well as many county and local shows. This, along with being involved with young farmers stock judging, gave him the grounding and impetus to work as a breeding advisor since 1994.

Being a member of the Shorthorn Society, on their breed council for over 25 years and on their judges panel since 1993, has taken him to many local and county shows. He’s had the privilege to judge the ABAB Calf Show twice, but the highlights have been to judge the World Conference Show in 2010 at the Highland Show, the first-ever national dairy show in 2011 at the Cheshire County Show and in 2022 being asked to judge the world conference and the national show at the Great Yorkshire.

Guernsey Judge: Colin Christophers

In addition to judging the National Ayrshire Show, Colin Christophers has been selected by the Guernsey Cattle Society to judge the Guernseys classes.

With wife Jenny, son David and help from daughter Debbie and Granddaughter Megan, Colin runs the Rosehill Ayrshire herd.  The 300-acre Cornwall Council farm has a herd of 300 with 170 milking cows and followers. Recent investment on the farm has seen a new slurry system installed, collecting and converting methane from the herd to power tractors, vehicles, and generators.

The Rosehill Ayrshire Herd has shown all over the South West and previously up to the Royal Show.  Their greatest accolade is winning the Royal Show with Rosehill Black Velour.  In addition to showing Colin has had the honour of judging all over the UK, including at Balmoral & Antrim in Northern Ireland, The Highland Show and AgriScot in Scotland, The Welsh Dairy Show, Royal Welsh and the Royal and Royal Welsh Shows.

Jersey Judge: John Waller

Travelling over from Cumbria is John Waller to judge this year’s Jersey classes.

John farms in partnership with his father Robert, on a pedigree dairy and sheep farm of 400 acres in Killington, down the Lune Valley, between Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale. A family-run farm, they have 100 Holsteins and 60 Jerseys under the Killington prefix, and 400 commercial sheep.

John’s wife, Kate and daughters, Sophie and Natalie have been the main driving force behind the Jersey herd, first founded in 2002. The Waller family have enjoyed successes at their local shows and John has judged Jerseys at shows across England including the Great Yorkshire Show. He is the current Secretary and a previous Chairman of the Lakes Counties Jersey Club.

The cattle infrastructure sponsor is NWF Agriculture supporting free cattle entries for exhibitors. The cattle schedule will be released in June with the stall booking deadline being Friday 4th August 2023.

UK Dairy Day Cattle Show Manager and Chief Steward, Lynden Bustard, comments; “Last year’s UK Dairy Day saw a fantastic display of the six breeds, I have no doubt this year will be even better. The cattle show gives breeders the opportunity to showcase their cows in a competitive environment under the professional eye of the judges. UK Dairy Day gives UK genetics a global marketing platform through live streaming and great social media coverage.”

UK Dairy Day will be held Wednesday 13th September 2023 at The International Centre, Telford, Shropshire.

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