The fourth UK Dairy Day in Telford saw crowds of people herd into the International Centre for a day dedicated to dairy. Record breaking visitors of 8,422 descended on UK Dairy Day – an 8% increase on the previous year - demonstrating the strength, positivity, and drive of the industry with thousands gathering to network, learn, and do vital business with suppliers.

Exhibitors, sponsors, and visitors have praised the day for its excellence, providing dairy businesses from right across the UK with the platform to communicate to a targeted audience, at a time when important decisions are being made by farmers ahead of winter housing. The International Centre was transformed into a gigantic dairy parade – with 186 show cattle in the main ring and every inch of its two great Halls, Ludlow Suite, Newport Suite, Concourse, first floor and external areas filled with dairy businesses from equipment, nutritionists, animal health experts, bedding suppliers to professional advisors and banks. From farm to retail shelves, every facet of the dairy supply chain was represented amongst the 310 exhibitors.

The Cattle Lines were filled with pristine cattle ready for showing. Managed and coordinated by a team of extremely professional stewards the Cattle Show, featuring both The National Holstein Show and The National Ayrshire Show, was a real highlight of the day. Various awards were presented throughout the day to those who have made phenomenal effort to advance their breeds. The Interbreed Heifer Champion was awarded to Littlebridge Goldchip Honey, the Interbreed Senior Champion awarded to Illens Atwood Australia and the Interbreed Dairy Pairs awarded to Illens Atwood Australia & Icow Huddlesford Rosann 899.  A special mention went to Dick Stapleton, a backbone of the cattle infrastructure team, who was awarded the Holstein UK Lifetime Achievement Award. The full list of results from the Cattle Show can now be viewed online: http://www.ukdairyday.co.uk/2017-show-results

The Sharing Knowledge Zone with seminars, New Product Competition, Making More from Milk Zone and the Calf Rearing Zone proved to be a very popular area with many engaging in practical demonstrations of type classification, calf anatomy painting and cattle foot trimming. The Dairy Prospects Post-Brexit seminar presented by AHDB drew a large crowd as farmers wanted to understand more about the future of farming post EU, and how Brexit will impact at ground level. Also in this area Herdwatch picked up the New Product Award for its innovative Farm Management App. They were closely followed by CowAlert by IceRobotics who were highly commended for their Automated Lameness Detection and the judges made a special mention to Dairy Spares for Trusti Tuber. The 12 shortlisted products were on display throughout the whole day with the winner being announced just after lunchtime. To view the 12-shortlisted new products visit: http://www.ukdairyday.co.uk/sharing-knowledge/new-products

Weatherbys Scientific had the hard challenge of judging the 310 trade stands on the day for their creativity, engagement, clarity of graphic and overall effect. ADF Milking picked up the award for the largest stand, Vetoquinol won best medium sized stand and the best small stand went to Hingerose Ltd. The best external trade stand went to JFC Manufacturing.

Sue Cope, Event Director, commented on the shows’ success; “The UK Dairy Day team and its organisers Holstein UK and CIS, would like to say an enormous thank you to the dairy industry for their continued support. The energy and atmosphere felt at Wednesday’s show really does demonstrate the strength of our industry and positive future ahead. With recent milk price increases, farmers felt encouraged to look at new innovations at the show and plan for production. The Cattle Show is always a remarkable display with the country’s most sensational cattle on parade. I’d personally like to congratulate all cattle exhibitors for their effort and dedication in preparing every animal to such a high standard. It really is exemplary for British agriculture. As UK Dairy Day grows we are conscious of adding new elements to the show to keep it fresh and innovative and at the forefront of British farming. This year the UK Dairy Day app was downloaded by hundreds of people and the introduction of the NBDC Breed Village and Calf Rearing Zone were extremely popular.”

She concludes; “The 2017 UK Dairy Day has attracted its highest visitor numbers yet, including both a domestic and international following. It is down to our sponsors, exhibitors, speakers, team members, colleagues at the International Centre and most importantly, our dairy farmers that UK Dairy Day has progressed to become the UK’s leading dairy trade event and we are already excited to host the 2018 show.”