The Judges - and their comments on 2012

Murray Sowter owns and operates Murribrook Holsteins at Moss Vale, NSW, milking some 200 cows.

Since Murray's first trip to Canada in 1975, he has been using and importing genetics from North America and was involved in the first live imports from Canada and in the late 1980's. Families of these are prominent today in the breeding program. One, Walkerbrae Triple T Toni, Ex 24*, became a prominent brood cow across Australia and New Zealand. Her great-granddaughter was Supreme exhibit at Canterbury Show in Christchurch in November 2010.

Murray has been involved in a number of sales from the first Maple Leaf Invitation Sales in 1986, which further developed to video sales where buyers gathered at various points throughout the country, often the local put, to bid and buy in real time. Murribrook's Bred for Success II Sale in March 2011 produced Intermediate Champion at Brisbane Royal and Junior Champion at Melbourne Royal for their new owners. Murray has judged at various Shows throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Lynn Lee of Smyrna, Tennessee, USA, is a lifelong registered dairy cattle breeder with wide-ranging experience as an auctioneer, as a type evaluator for the American Jersey Cattle Association and as a show judge.

Lynn's judging assignments over the past several years have been prestigious, including national shows for many breeds at the World Dairy Expo at Madison, Wisconsin; All-American Dairy Show at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts; Western National in Puyallup, Washington; and the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky. He has also travelled to Colombia, Finland, Guatemala, Ireland and South Africa to judge national shows in those countries. Lynn and his family operate a 525 acre farm and have, over the years, bred numerous All-Americans and Reserve All-Americans bearing their Lee's Dixieland prefix. He has also been associated with a family owned full service auction company that is engaged in all aspects of dairy cattle sale management. Lynn served as Director of the U.S. Ayshire Breeders' Association for 10 years, and was most recently the organisation's National President.

Dennis Mashek, Calmer, IA, together with his wife, Barb and their sons, Joshua and Tanner, run Hilltop Acres, which includes 700 acres and 175 Registered Brown Swiss cows. Dennis's comments as follows on the 2012 Show:

"I was very impressed with the quality the Brown Swiss Show had. The heifer classes were balanced heifers from top to bottom and the cow classes had adequate strength and openness, clean boned with high quality undders.

I feel the Brown Swiss breed has a bright future in Australia. They adapt very well to the climates and teraine of Australia.

I was also given the opportunity to judge the on-farm challenge photos for the Brown Swiss Breed. There was huge amount of quality in these cattle, some of which were not at the Show. I wish all the Brown Swiss Breeders would come to the show to really display the quality of Brown Swiss cattle in Australia.

Congratulations to all the Brown Swiss breeders. They have a breed they should be very proud of.

Thanks also to the IDW Committee and the Brown Swiss Association of Australia for inviting me to be their judge in 2012. It was a great honour and my wife and I enjoyed meeting so many new breeders (friends) of the big brown cow." Sincerely Dennis Mashek.

David Mayo officiated the Guernsey judging in 2012. David is Semex's sales and marketing manager for Australia and New Zealand, and is also one of Australia's most experienced and well travelled judges and a successful breeder in his own right. David's view on IDW 2012 is as follows:

"It was a great honour to judge the Guernsey Show at IDW. Class winners continually impressed both the ringside and myself with their style, balance, bone quality and in the cow sections, great mammery systems.

The juvenile championship lineup was headed by the heifer who won the oldest class of the section; her overall correctness, chest width, depth and spring of rib, with great feet and legs proved enough to place the reserve champion. The younger reserve champion was an open ribbed heifer with great width to her rump.

The Intermediate section was dominat4ed by an extremely well balanced and complete young cow. The 3 year old on her 2nd lactation had a very good udder that excelled in texture, teat placement, ligament strength and strong attachments. It was her balance and maturity, depth of body, loin strength, superior udder especially width of rear udder attachments, that placed her over the very promising 2 year old reserve champion. The correct shape, dairyness, rib angle and shallowness of udder were admired on the reserve intermediate champion.

The winning mature cow was presented in tremendous form; with her outstanding udder she was a comfortable champion and an obvious choice for me. She won the best udder class and as an aged cow is very youthful, long bodied, correct through the frame, exhibits tremendous dairyness and bone quality. All in all she was a wonderful champion cow." David Mayo.

Graham McPhee is a third generation dairy farmer growing up on the South Coast of NSW. He and his family relocated to Finley in southern NSW in 1990, bringing the Hillview Park Stud with them. The last 20 years have seen Graham successfully develop and promote the Hillview Park name, recently being awarded one of the few 2nd Master Breeder awards in Australia.

Having judged at various Australian Royal Shows, on-farm challenges and numerous regional shows, Graham brings passion and knowledge to the ring. He enjoys a great relationship with exhibitors and officials alike, being a successful exhibitor himself. The Hillview Park Stud has achieved not only Grand Champion at IDW, but also numerous Champions, Reserves and most Successful Breeder and Exhibitor awards at renowned shows, along with All Australian winners.

A great passion of Graham's, besides the animals themselves, is encouraging and guiding the younger generation, with both his sons heavily involved in the dairy industry.

Graham's most recent achievement in the show ring was judging the Royal Melbourne 2011 Show, which received an overwhelming positive response from exhibitors and officials alike. Having shown Holsteins at every IDW and associate Youth Show since inception, Graham is looking forward to IDW 2012 with great anticipation.

Warren Ferguson owns Ferdon Jersey Stud near Hamilton in New Zealand. Married to Michelle, they have three sons - Josh, Corey, Ash and grandson Toia, making four generations now at Ferdon Genetics. The Ferdon Jersey Stud was eestablished in 1949 by Warren's father Don.

Warren's thoughts on the Jersey Show were: "The Jersey Cows came out in force with really strong classes which could compete at any show in the world! I was a little taken by the number of really good cows that just kept coming. A credit to the Breeders and Owners in Australia. It will go down in history that for the 21st IDW, a jersey cow took out the Supreme Champion, that cow being Willow Del Fancy 512.

Congratulations to the organisers and teams of people involved with IDW. For me this was truly an amazing experience as the Jersey Judge to be a part of the 21st International Dairy Week."

Roger Turner has been employed by Alta Genetics Inc. since 1993. Serving a dual role at Alta, Roger is one of four North American regional sire analysts and is also an International Sales Manager for multiple countries including Italy, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand. Roger’s young sire and genetic selection responsibilities include all of Canada, as well as Michigan, Indiana and Washington in the United States. Roger's comments are as follows:

"The IDW Holstein Show was nothing short of spectacular once again this year. Each and every class had large entries and the competition in each class was very strong, with the quality rising each year.

In the young classes, the animals have more size and quality with an ideal body condition - making them outstanding individuals. I was very impressed with the young and intermediate milk classes. These young cows overwhelmed me with their quality. They showed tremendous quality udders, dairy strength and exceptional feet and legs. They shone for their overall dairy quality, making this a first class show.

The world has long admired the longevity of your Australian Holstein cow - and this year's show was no exception. The senior cow classees delivered exceptional entries class after class. These mature cows have the strength to last for many lactations and maintain their youthful udders; this is true credit to their breeders and exhibitors. The overall breed characters these cows display is second to none. They totally exhibit the frame, capacity, breed character, dairy strength, udders and feet and legs that are sought after worldwide.

I was simply overwhelmed with the depth and quality in each class. The show cattle preparation and presentation was amazing. I was so impressed with the great sportsman-like conduct, professionalism and showmanship that every exhibitor demonstrated throughout the day. It is a great accomplishment that Australia has had an impact on the world breeding front and with its leading combination of great people and great cows, it is easy to see that Australia will continue to be a leader worldwide for generations to come.

Congratulations to all at IDW...Breeders, Exhibitors, show organisers and spectators alike. It was an honour and pleasure to be involved with your Holstein 2012 Show." Roger Turner