The countdown is on to UK Dairy Day, the UK’s leading free-to-attend dairy trade event, returning to the International Centre in Telford on Wednesday 14th September 2022. In its eighth year, UK Dairy Day is the event to attend for anyone connected to the dairy industry providing an opportunity to network, share knowledge, learn and most importantly, do business.

There has been a record re-booking of trade stand space from existing and new exhibitors who will feature across the extensive internal and external exhibition areas. Exhibitors include feed manufacturers, animal health suppliers, vets, milk buyers, dairy and farm equipment suppliers - plus professional service providers and charities.

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The event is organised by Holstein UK with support from representatives at The Cattle Information Service, National Bovine Data Centre, The International Centre, Stagecraft UK and other key businesses within the industry. Last year was one of the first events of 2021 to take place following the Covid-19 restrictions with attendance of over 7,000 visitors and this year it is hoped to return to pre-covid visitor numbers.

UK Dairy Day is fortunate to have fantastic support from across the industry, with various businesses investing in sponsorship opportunities. Returning to the 2022 event are principal sponsors NWF Agriculture, Crystalyx and Holstein UK, and new principal sponsor Lely. We thank everyone from cattle class sponsors to media partners to associate and principal sponsors for their continued support.

The Cattle Show

With the fantastic support from sponsors, the Cattle Show has established itself as one of the UK’s most prestigious - with breeders from across the UK competing under the spotlights in Telford

UK Dairy Day will be hosting the established National Holstein Show along with The National Ayrshire Show and The National Brown Swiss Show. Classes will run during the morning for Dairy Shorthorn, Guernsey and Jersey. The live streaming and social media coverage UK Dairy Day boasts gives an international marketing platform to display the UK’s top dairy cattle.

With free entry, stalling, breakfast rolls, tea and coffee, kindly supported by NWF Agriculture, cattle exhibitors are being encouraged to put forward their entries. The stall booking deadline for cattle exhibitors is Friday 5th August 2022 and the cattle entry deadline is Friday 2nd September 2022. 

Anticipation will build around the show ring as the judges make the decision of who is awarded the sashes and trophies. This year’s cattle show judges are all confirmed, with four travelling overseas.

Competitions

To showcase new products, exhibitors have had the opportunity to enter the New Product Competition. The competition looks for the most innovative or influential new products on the market and the shortlisted entries will be displayed in the concourse and judged during the morning of the event by representatives from IDEXX who sponsor the competition.

The 2022 UK Dairy Day New Product Competition Finalists are;

• Charcovet Gel - Ark AnimalCare Ltd

Concourse – Stand F3

• Feed Alert – Collinson

Hall 2 – Stand H210

• Fusion Pro – NWF Agriculture

Hall 2 – Stand H217

• Genotyped Embryos on Demand – Semex UK

Hall 1 – Stand H226

• Herdvision 3D Camera – Agsenze Ltd

Ludlow – Stand L29

• Kemper Grass Pick – Greencrop

External – Stand E9

• OmyadFeed C MgO – Omya UK

Ludlow – Stand L11

• Rumustart Green – Kersia

Hall 1 – Stand H154

• Sustel – DSM Nutritional Products

Concourse – Stand TB11

• Transform Pro – Carrs Billington

Hall 1 – Stand H142

• VistaPreT – AB Vista

Ludlow – Stand L16

UK Dairy Day will also recognise the hard work that goes into planning, designing and building the fantastic display of trade stands.  The trade stand competition will see judges from sponsor Hettle Andrews review the exhibition areas and award prize cards for the Best Small Internal Trade Stand, Best Medium Internal Trade Stand, Best Large Internal Trade Stand and Best External Trade Stand.

In addition to the cattle classes judged throughout the day, there will also be awards made for Best Presented and Tidy Lines, Holstein UK Premier Herd, Premier Breeder Banner, Premier Exhibitor Banner, and Harold Sneesby Award. 

Sharing Knowledge

The first floor of the venue sees the return of the dedicated Sharing Knowledge zone with industry panels and seminars.  There will be four industry panels with leading industry representatives discussing sustainability within the dairy sector.  The hour-long panels will run alongside four seminar presentations, sponsored by Volac, with speakers covering key dairy industry subjects that inform the audience and create topical discussion. 

Timetable:

• 10.00am – Seminar - Volac International
• 10.30am – Industry Panel - Sustainable Farms
• 11.30am – Seminar - NWF Agriculture
• 12.00pm – Industry Panel - Sustainable Finance
• 1.00pm – Seminar – Crystalyx
• 1.30pm – Industry Panel - Sustainable Employment
• 2.20pm – Seminar – Lely
• 2.45pm – Industry Panel - Sustainable Dairy Market

The external areas at the International Centre will feature the ever-popular practical demonstrations on calf anatomy painting as well as foot trimming and knife sharpening.

Scarsdale Vets, from Derbyshire, will present their innovative and engaging demonstration using paint to visualise and understand calf anatomy. Throughout the day there will be the ‘Beneath the Black and White’ calf painting and the Scarsdale Vets team will use paint to assist the understanding of calf health and welfare.

Tim Carter returns with practical demonstrations on foot trimming, blocking and knife sharpening.  The qualified team of independent foot trimmers will demonstrate the key to the success of any task is having the right tools for the job. They will also highlight The Cattle Hoof Care Standards Board, a self-funding non-profit organisation aimed at improving the health, welfare and mobility of the national herd, by ensuring its members promote, achieve and maintain a recognised and validated standard of cattle hoof care.

Internally by the Hall 3 cattle stalls will be the NBDC Breed Village where members of the NBDC Classification team will run Type Classification and Linear Scoring demonstrations for the Ayrshire, Jersey and Holstein breeds.  In conjunction with the Linear Scoring demonstration, a Virtual Cow demonstration will run on a TV screen. Virtual Cow is an educational tool which graphically illustrates the linear scale for cow conformation traits. This allows for an improved understanding of dairy cow conformation and easy visualisation of anatomical differences within each trait across the linear scale.

UK Dairy Day is an accredited event with Dairy Pro for three CPD points and BASIS for two CPD points.

Charity Fundraising

Sadly this year’s UK Dairy Day will be without Holstein UK CEO & UKDD Event Director Sue Cope who was instrumental in making the event happen year on year since 2014. 

Sue sadly passed away on 11th May 2022 after a short but courageous battle with illness.  In her memory fundraising will take place at the event for the Brain Tumour Trust.

The countdown to UK Dairy Day really does now begin! Join in with the hype on social media by following @ukdairyday on Twitter and liking the UK Dairy Day Facebook page. Make sure the date is firmly in your diary: Wednesday 14th September at the International Centre, Telford, TF3 4JH. 

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