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New Zealand Dairy Event (NZDE) will welcome four international judges from three countries to its Manfeild Park Stadium at Feilding from January 24-26.
NZDE organisers are excited to be back on track after two cancellations in the last four years - in 2019 and 2022 - due to Mycoplasma bovis.
The 2022 show was also difficult, as organisers had to navigate Covid-19, which limited entries, and meant no international visitors.
This year it will be business as usual, as, along with the judges, there will also be a number of international cattle fitters in attendance.
The judges are led off by the Holstein judge – who is one of the UK’s highest profile breeders – Mark Nutsford.
Nutsford and his wife, Susan, own and operate 250-head at Riverdane Holsteins, in addition to Celltech Embryo Transfer at Cheshire in northwest England.
The couple milk 100 of their high-production Holsteins through two robots, with the balance being milked in a parlour.
They farm 450 acres of mostly grass, maize and whole-crop wheat.
Nutsford judged the All-European Show in Belgium in 2019. The show included close to 150 cows from 10 countries and is a nation versus nation, rather than breeder against breeder - because the cows are pre-selected within their respective countries to represent their nation. This competition is recognised for changing the dynamic and amping up the atmosphere.
Nutsford has no problem with pressure in and out of the ring.
Riverdane Holsteins has won the UK National twice, the UK Royal Show, the All Breeds Calf Show twice (including breeding three), AgriScot four times, the UK Dairy Expo, the UK Livestock event, the Cheshire show five times, the Western show three times, the Northern Expo twice, and the Nantwich three times.
Showing outside of the UK he has won the European four-year-old class at Fribourg.
Riverdane has amassed 54 All-Britain Competition nominations, three 97-point cows and 30 maximum-scored cows – including 13 VG89 two-year-olds.
Nutsford is a trustee of Holstein UK, and was a master judge at the European judging school in 2017.
Two Australian friends, colleagues and partners in cattle will judge the Jerseys and the Combined Breeds respectively.
The Jerseys will be judged by Daniel Bacon, who milks 280 high-production Jerseys under the well-known prefix, Brookbora Jerseys.
Brookbora Jerseys – located on 283 hectares in Tennyson, Victoria – is Australia’s highest production herd, the reigning Premier Breeder and Premier Exhibitor herd at International Dairy Week (IDW), and the equal No. 2 Australian Jersey herd in BPI [Balanced Performance Index].
Brookbora also has the distinction of breeding more than 300 EX cows.
Bacon spent eight years working as a nutritionist after graduating with a degree in animal science from Charles Sturt University, at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.
He returned to the family farm in a part-time role in 2017 – balancing it with his nutritionist work – before joining the popular Brookbora partnership full-time this year with his parents, Robert and Sandra.
Their Jersey herd averaged 668kg milk solids in 305 days last season (with an average body weight of 430kg).
Brookbora also bred two popular sires, which are being used across the globe, Brookbora Valentino Askn, and Brookbora Bushfield (in addition to co-breeding Pannoo Abe Vanahlem).
Bacon will be joined in the interbreed ring by his friend, Ben Govett, of Tandara Genetics, who will judge the Combined Breeds.
The pair are part of the three-way partnership on one of Australia’s famous Illawarras, Wallumlands Sunstorm 8 EX95.
Sunstorm 8 was shown four times at IDW for four Grand Champions and two Supreme Champions (of all breeds) between 2015 and 2019.
The partnership also includes Glen Gordon of Gorbro Holsteins. Notably, at IDW 2022 Bacon, Govett and Gordon all won Premier Exhibitor in their respective breeds – Jersey, Brown Swiss, and Holstein.
Govett owns a 600-hectare operation at Dingee, in northern Victoria, a couple of hours north of Melbourne.
Tandara has been Premier Breeder and Premier Exhibitor in the Brown Swiss at International Dairy Week (IDW) in Australia every year for the last decade.
That has often included Tandara names on the Champion, Reserve and Honourable Mention - and every other broad ribbon on offer for the breed.
Tandara has bred and owned the last seven IDW Brown Swiss Grand Champions. Govett has also owned broad ribbon winners at IDW in Holstein and Ayrshires.
Govett’s 300-head herd is an even split between Brown Swiss and Holsteins with some Jerseys and whatever other breeds he may have on-board as a favour to someone.
The Holsteins average 10,500 litres (625kg Milk Solids) and while the top two dozen Brown Swiss are marginally behind the Holstein in litres, Govett said the top tier of Brown Swiss hold the power in Milk Solids. He supplies the processor Lactalis.
Govett’s judging resume is just as diverse as his breed choices.
He has judged different breeds at every Royal Show in Australia – Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide. He has also judged the popular Toowoomba Show.
He will be familiar to some New Zealanders, having judged the Waikato On-Farm Show in 2019 (which replaced the Waikato Show that year because of Mycroplasma bovis). He also judged the Holsteins at the Victorian Winter Fair at Bendigo (Victoria) in June this year.
Govett works hard at home, but he is also well travelled and is a regular visitor to the World Dairy Expo (WDE) in the United States.
He will visit WDE again in the lead-up to his January commitment.
Govett graduated from the University of Melbourne with a degree in Animal Science and has used it as a vital base to run a profitable operation in one of the most challenging areas for dairy in Australia.
The fourth international is South African dairyman Edmund Els, who will judge the Ayrshires.
Els owns The Ridge Ayrshires, milking 200 registered Ayrshires on the Western Cape. He is equally comfortable showing cows – having exhibited and bred several national champions – as he is working in official roles at the highest levels for the breed.
He is the World Ayrshire Federation’s current president.
He was also the first judge outside North America to judge at the Southern National Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, USA in 2012.
Els was employed by the Ayrshire Society in 2005, working as its breed director between 2005 and 2012. He also served on South Africa’s Ayrshire board for many years, was President between 2014 and 2017, and he still serves as a council member.
He is a South African Ayrshire representative to the World Ayrshire Federation.
Els has judged widely in South Africa, and in Kenya twice – in 2016 – and at the Nairobi International Trade Fair (2017). He has also judged the International Ayrshire Show and Interbreed at the UK Dairy Event at Telford (2017), and the Ammujaiset Dairy Show in Finland (2018).
Els has judged at the world photographic competition, the Australian photographic competition, and the All-American photographic competition.
Kiwi Gordon Fullerton will judge the youth show.
The 25-year-old sharemilker is milking 300-head in his second season for well-known Waikato dairyman Henk Smit.
The Maungatautari operation in picturesque Cambridge is 70 per cent autumn calving.
The System 5 operation – which is a herd of Holsteins and 25 Jerseys – averaged 670kg of Milk Solids last season.