Royal Dairy Show and Holstein Friesian North Island Champs coming to town

The Holstein Friesian North Island Championships are coming to town. Photo/ Supplied

The Royal Dairy Show and Holstein Friesian North Island Championships are coming to town.

The two events will feature in this year's Stratford A&P Show - a real coup for Stratford, says Stratford A&P Show Association secretary Vicki Jagersma.

"It's exciting to have the Royal Dairy Show as it is well respected and sought after. We also have the royal event status for beef and pig. For us to get the Royal Dairy Show twice in a row is a big achievement. Having the Holstein Friesian North Island champs as well is just the icing on the cake."

Vicki says the Hastings A&P Association has hosted the Royal New Zealand Show for a number of years in the past.

"The Stratford A&P Show normally couldn't get the royal show status because one event has all the categories. We haven't been able to apply for that as the Stratford A&P Show doesn't have some of those categories, such as alpacas, sheep or home industries.

"Last year with Covid-19 the Royal Agricultural Society allowed the royal show status to be separated out, so we were able to apply to have the royal show status for dairy. Because we had such a successful show last year, we were successful in applying for the royal show event status this year."

Holstein Friesian Taranaki secretary-treasurer Joyce Lawrence says the North Island championships last took place at Stratford's show in 2019.

"This year the champs were meant to take place at Waikato but their show was cancelled. We're very excited to have the champs, especially in conjunction with the Royal Dairy Show."

Joyce says there will be a spectacular range of cattle at this year's show.

"The North Island champs feature the best of the best. It's going to be a very good show to attend."

President Paul Vanner says this year's show features a range of activities.

"There will be so much happening, from trade stalls and woodchopping, to our events.

"The show is a reflection of everything we have in the region. I really believe we have the best A&P Show in New Zealand. It's reflected by the community as they enjoy it as well. To have the Royal Dairy Show and the Holstein Friesian North Island champs is a real reflection on how wonderful our show is."

Paul says the two events will bring people to Stratford.

"We will have a variety of people coming to the show for these events. We expect people to attend from all over New Zealand. The benefit of this is that not only will we have a large crowd, those people will be spending their money locally at shops in Stratford."

Paul says the Stratford A&P committee is now working hard planning the event.

"We're full steam ahead preparing our show. There is a lot to look forward to this year and we hope the country moves down alert levels so we can go ahead."