Four international judges will be on hand when New Zealand Dairy Event returns to Feilding next week.
Organisers of New Zealand’s premier dairy show said they are excited to finally be able to “throw open their doors” to the Manfeild Park Stadium from January 24-26, after four years of event disruption due to the mycoplasma Bovis outbreak and covid.
Last year the show went ahead but with limited entries and no international judges. This year it will be business as usual, with four international judges plus entries from Auckland through to Oamaru.
The judges are headed by the Holstein judge Mark Nutsford, one of the United Kingdom’s highest profile breeders.
Nutsford and his wife, Susan, own and operate 250 head at Riverdane Holsteins, in addition to Celltech Embryo Transfer at Cheshire in northwest England. Nutsford judged the All-European Show in Belgium in 2019. Riverdane Holsteins has won the UK National twice.
Two Australian friends, colleagues and partners in cattle will judge the Jerseys and the combined breeds respectively.
Daniel Bacon, who milks 280 high-production Jerseys under the well-known prefix Brookbora Jerseys, will judge the Jerseys.
Bacon will be joined by Ben Govett of Tandara Genetics, who will judge the combined breeds.
The fourth international is South African dairyman Edmund Els, who will judge the Ayrshires.
Els is the World Ayrshire Federation president and owns The Ridge Ayrshires, milking 200 registered Ayrshires, in the Western Cape. He is equally comfortable showing cows, having exhibited and bred several national champions.
Gordon Fullerton will judge the youth show. The 25-year-old share milker is milking 300 head in his second season for Waikato dairyman Henk Smit.
