Hailed a ‘fantastic event’ by exhibitors that attended UK Dairy Day at Telford last week attracting bumper crowds for the 10th anniversary event.
There were over 280 trade stands at this year’s UK Dairy Day of which over 100 exhibited at the first event 10 years ago in 2014. Throughout the exhibition area was an amazing display of trade stands promoting all aspects of the dairy industry enjoyed by bumper crowds with a buzzing atmosphere. Trade stand awards were presented to BCW Agriculture for the best Small Trade Stand Award, Nettex for the best Medium Trade Stand Award, KW Feeds for the best Large Trade Stand Award and GLW Feeds for the best External Trade Stand Award.
The tremendous show of dairy cattle was a central highlight with over 150 dairy cows shown under the spotlights in what was again the largest show of in-milk cows seen this year in Britain. The electric atmosphere was absorbed by the crowds watching around the ring and a worldwide audience watching via live streaming.
A leading lineup of judges tapped out the winners throughout the day for the six dairy breeds. The National Holstein Show was judged by Marcel Egli of Switzerland and saw Evening Sidekick Jennifer, exhibited by Evening Holsteins win back to back Holstein Championships at UK Dairy Day. Rivermead Verdi Pixie, from The Davis Family, was also crowned as breed champion for a second year running by judge Willie Taylor.
Ian Collins had the task of judging the National Ayrshire Show and the Guernsey classes, Blaise Tomlinson judged the National Brown Swiss Show and Paul Harrison the Dairy Shorthorn classes.
The Grand Champions were:
Holstein Grand Champion: Evening Sidekick Jennifer, Evening Holsteins
Ayrshire Grand Champion: Swaites Lois 8, J Adamson & Son
Brown Swiss Grand Champion: Kedar Rhappily Ever After, T Lochhead & Sons
Dairy Shorthorn Grand Champion: Churchroyd Heather 123, IRC Collins & Partners
Guernsey Grand Champion: Kimcote Brogdon Fragrant 8, AD & RM Thomas
Jersey Grand Champion: Rivermead Verdi Pixie, The Davis Family
The Holstein UK Premier Exhibitor Banner was won by Tregibby Holsteins and Premier Breeder Banner was won by Wormanby Holsteins.
The Howard Sneesby Memorial Trophy was presented to Ian Gibson for his contribution to the National Holstein Show. Ian owns Boundary Events and along with his team implements and manages all infrastructure that is required for an event like UK Dairy Day to happen.
Sharing knowledge is a key focus at UK Dairy Day and this year the industry panels featured leading figures from the dairy sector discussing the opportunities for cows, carbon, culture and costs. The UK Dairy Day website features the chairs and panellists who participated along with the recording of what was discussed. Seminar presentations were also held during the day, again recordings are online.
Externally visitors to the event watched the ever-popular foot trimming and knife sharpening demonstration by Tim Carter. The Scarsdale Vets team returned for the ‘Beneath the Black and White’ Calf Painting Demonstration which focussed on twin pregnancies, what causes them and how to manage them. The NBDC Classification team also ran two Type Classification and Linear Scoring demonstrations.
The New Product Competition featured 11 finalists, with Hoofcount Ltd winning the award for PediVue. A Highly Commended was presented to Oxi-Tech Solutions Ltd for Pulse Oxidation and a Judges Special Mention was presented to milkrite | InterPuls LTD for MIPulse.
Ben Yates, UK Dairy Day Cattle Show Director, commented; “The atmosphere at UK Dairy Day 2024 has been extremely buoyant with trade exhibitor feedback being very positive. The display of cattle in the ring gets better and better each year, seeing the final lineup of six Holstein cows standing side by side in the Holstein Championship was a sight to behold and will be talked about for many years.”
Event Director Hannah Williams added: “UK Dairy Day would like to thank all exhibitors, visitors and sponsors for yet again supporting UK Dairy Day and celebrating the 10th anniversary. A major recognition goes to our principal sponsors, Lely Center Midlands and NWF Agriculture as well as Holstein UK who organised the event. UK Dairy Day really is the most important and dedicated event for the dairy industry; it is where new concepts, products, ideas and innovations are shared and where dairy farmers can do business. We look forward to welcoming everyone to UK Dairy Day 2025.”
Save the Date for 2025: UK Dairy Day will be held on Wednesday 10th September 2025 at The International Centre, Telford, Shropshire.
