The winner of the 2025 Premier Herd Competition was announced at UK Dairy Day on Wednesday 10 th September. This year’s recipient was W & A Booth of the Feizor herd, who farm on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border near Settle. Having won the Northern region earlier in August, the herd went up against six other herds in the country to be crowned the winners.

Judging this year’s competition was Brian Miller, last year’s winner, from the Moorshard herd in Somerset. Brian commenting on judging this prestigious event said he was extremely honoured to judge the Premier Herd competition and had been looking forward to this opportunity all year. Brian said the herds were excellent throughout and enjoyed meeting the finalists and travelling the country.

‘I was looking for a herd with cows that had good dairy strength, power, good rumps and cows that walked on a sound set of legs and feet with great mammary systems’ Brian said as he summed up his judging to the crowds at UK Dairy Day. ‘I wasn’t disappointed, all seven herds fitted this with uniformity throughout. Seeing the different families in each herd, but also the different sires used was interesting, I was impressed with the Lambda and Chief daughters that were on display across the herds.’ Brian finalised his comments with ‘the placings were close throughout, especially for third place, with many of the herds that could have been in the top three.’.

The Feizor herd compromises of around 120 milkers plus 190 followers, the herd is currently averaging 12,500kgs, being housed indoors all year round, with youngstock and dry cows grazing, the farm which is made up of 270 acres and is entirely grass and permanent pasture. The herd was completely restocked after FMD in 2001.

A family run farm, the herd is managed and run by David and Pamela, and their son William and his wife Joanne. David’s parents, David and Elizabeth are still very much part of the herd and farm, along with William’s sister Hannah.

Notable families include Delia, Dandy, Flo, Joy, Melody and Neoma with more recent editions including Bellamy, Blexy and Kandie. The Feizor herd previously won this accolade in 2012 and achieved Master Breeder status in 2015. This is only the second time that a herd has won the Premier Herd Competition on multiple occasions since the contest started in 2002.

Following in Reserve was the Boclair herd from David & John Brewster from the Scotland region. Farming in Lanarkshire, milking 210 cows through robots, the Boclair herd was established in the 1950s by the late Jack Brewster. The herd is currently averaging 13,543kgs, with notable family members from Hope, Joan, Elegance and Apple. No strangers to the competition, the Boclair herd won in 2017 and were finalists last year.

Placing in Honourable Mention position was the Corringham herd from RV Winter & Sons, based in Lincolnshire who had won the Eastern region. The Corringham herd, also previous winners back in 2008, have since been finalists five times. Milking 210 cows on a mixed dairy and arable farm, the herd is averaging 10,400kgs. Their prominent cows families include the Beths and the Crimsons.

Source: Holstein UK