I had a dream about a cow last night. I remember waking up and wondering why I'd had that vision. Then this news of the Best in Show Female arrived.
It's one of the only years I didn't get along. Previously I've also judged food at Sydney Royal. Imagine eating cakes or oysters for a whole day.
For me this is what The Show is all about. It's about our connection with The Land. It's about the produce, and our connection with the food that we eat. And although our big city show expands with rides and other entertainment, even the show bags have their roots as food samples. For me, it's also a personal story as I am the first generation in Australia not to live on The Land. Imagine how proud my family was when I was a judge. Forget the interviews I've done, the restaurants I've reviewed, nothing compared to that Royal Agricultural Society moment.
So here's the 2017 news!
After a detailed countback process which resulted in the need for a final adjudicator, a Holstein cow from Jaspers Brush in the NSW Shoalhaven has won the title of Supreme Champion Dairy Female at the 2017 Sydney Royal Easter Show.
But the story is not only that Avonlea Fever Suzette emerged the dairy competition’s version of Best in Show this year, she was the defending Supreme Champion Dairy Female from the 2016 Sydney Royal Easter Show.
To win this year the five-and-a-half year old Holstein had to beat off all competition in her own classes and breed and then be considered the best example of a cow across all dairy breeds exhibited and entered at the Show.
The Dairy competition consisted of the breeds Holstein, Jersey, Guernsey, Ayrshire, Illawarra and Brown Swiss.
When all the voting of class wins was counted across the dairy breeds, there was nothing in the standings between a Senior Champion Female Jersey from Tallygaroopna, Victoria and the Holstein Senior Female Champion.
An adjudicator was called in and decided Avonlea Fever Suzette was the Supreme Champion Dairy Female winner for a second year running.
Owner and handler Justin Walsh says back-to-back wins is incredibly satisfying;
“It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work leading up to the Show and then competing here throughout it”, he said.
“To win Supreme Champion once is great, to win two years in a row is amazing,” Mr Walsh said.
Another Holstein producer, Murribrook Holsteins from Moss Vale in the NSW Southern Highlands has finished the 2017 Sydney Royal Easter Show as the most successful dairy breeder.
The Holstein breed produces the highest milk yields of the dairy breeds found in Australia.
Each cow exhibited at the Sydney Royal Easter Show is milked daily on site and can produce upwards of 30 litres of milk each time.
It is not the first time a single animal has been a repeat winner of the Supreme Dairy Female trophy at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, the Wilson family from Tamworth and their Jersey Cow Shirlinn Icy
Eve claimed the title in three consecutive years (2012, 2013, 2014).