29/09/07
As livestock movements are getting underway across the country
the Northern Expo Show Committee are getting ready to take their
show into it’s quarter century with their “Silver
Edition” 25th
anniversary Holstein show on the evening of Friday 26th October.
The show is open to all female animals registered with Holstein
UK and there are classes to suit all ages from baby calves to senior
cows.
Northern Expo 2006
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The Northern Expo
Holstein Show in its 25th year is largely
seen as one of the main events in the dairy calendar at Carlisle’s
Borderway Mart in what is now established as a national autumn
show fixture and undoubtedly one of the best and most popular
one day shows in the UK.
Northern Expo’s beginnings came with the decision to hold
a club show in 1982 by members of the North West Holstein Breeders
Club, then a fledgling club.
The 1982 show immediately enjoyed popularity, attracting a creditable
74 head of cattle from 21 exhibitors that year.
Whilst early honours were dominated by the Parboldhall and Greengill
prefixes, enthusiasm, quality and numbers continued to grow resulting
in more than one re-location for the event. As you will see from
our list of grand champions exhibitors such as TG Dent, Melling & Loftus,
RJ & D Loftus and WW Garnett have been extremely successful
and must be congratulated for taking the cream of the show on
numerous occasions. The show would not be where it is today if
it hadn’t of been for the knowledge and enthusiasm of these
breeders to name but a few. It is well worth a mention that Wilson
Garnett is still an active committee member and ambassador for
the show, while his wife Joan can be relied upon to assist with
the secretary’s point scoring on the evening. However in
more recent times the dazzling show career of one amazing cow
has been emphasised by the Northern Expo Show, namely “Holmland
Storm Flo”. Flo has won the show on three different occasions,
bred by Tony Bell and shown in the expert hands of Francis, Ann
and David Wright of Kendal.
Over the last decade and more the show has witnessed continued
development, which always welcomes new faces to enter as exhibitors.
The quality and professionalism of the event has rapidly developed
under a progressive show committee.
Northern Expo in its present form was born in 1996, welcoming
entries from beyond the original club’s membership and
attracting the very best Holsteins from as far apart as Doncaster,
Aberdeen, Blackpool and the Scottish borders.
The ‘man in the middle’ at this year’s event
will be Hank Van Excel. Hank and his family, wife Carolyn, son
Adam, and daughters Sarah and Jennifer farm in Lodi, California.
They milk 1400 Holstein and 240 Jerseys on two farms. The herd
production for the Holstein is 23,040 3.6 1029 fat 3.0 840 pr.
With some 250 cows or more they have over 33 Excellent and over
110 Very Good.
Some of their well known cattle are:
- Four of a Kind Eland 7H6352.
- Mr. Jed Approval 7H8419.
- Lock Lee Knight Pam Ex93 National record holder for milk & Dam
of Exels SWD Eagle.
- Exels Anticipation - Res All American Bull Calf owned by Hokkaido
A.I.
- Life-O-Riley Persausion Shelly - Ex93 nominated 3 times All American.
- Sierra Vista Silverado Nicolette VG89 2yr Res All American 2yr Old.
- Stanlee Counselor Inka Ex94 nominated 3 times All American in milking
form.
- Applevue Tempo Maud 94 twice over 50,000 of milk.
- Exels Enhancer Polly April - VG. 4 sons on A.I.; 2 in Japan.
- Robwynn Iaurier Lai Ex94 twice nominated All American.
- Beaumond Spendide Spirit Ex94 All American 4 yr - ‘03 & Reserve
Grand Champion at International Holstein Show ’03.
Van Exels have also been Premier Exhibitors at California Black & White
Show six out of seven years. In addition, Hank has judged World
Dairy Expo, Eastern National both Holstein and Jersey, Southern
National, Eastern National, Spring Show, National Jersey Show,
Louisville, as well as Australia and Canada, Royal Winter Fair
in Toronto Canada, Swiss National Show, French Tours and has
served on the All American panel for eight years.
As Northern Expo hosts 25 classes and special awards and a Grand
Champion prize of £500 up for grabs the show committee
can only hope that breeders can deal with the movement regulations
and with bio-security being kept at it’s highest level
anticipates an impressive line of cattle to be forward from around
thirty exhibitors.
Indeed the quality of cattle and popularity of the event have
been such that Carrs Billington, The Farmers Guardian, Holstein
UK and World Wide Sires UK Ltd are once again proud to be on
board as the major show sponsors.
The evening kicks off with class one for calves to be born on
or after 1st December 2006 – to be led by a handler aged
under 16 years, class two for calves born between 1st August
2006 and 30th November 2006 and class three for Maiden heifers
born between 1st April 2006 and 31st July 2006.
It is surely worth a mention that on introducing a calf section
and an award for the champion calf some two years ago was an
encouraging step in the right direction for the appeal of the
younger Holstein enthusiasts, for this section of the show alone
could attract up to forty entries. Following on after the calf
championship is the in calf classes respectively for heifers
in calf followed directly by the cow in calf class. Then as things
start to warm up comes the turn of the in milk classes beginning
with Class seven which is for in milk heifers (split between
junior’s and senior’s). Next comes the Genetic Merit
award, Junior Championship and Exhibitor Bred Junior Championship.
Class eight sees the commencement of the cow in milk classes
starting with Junior cow in milk (having calved twice), class
nine, Intermediate cow in milk (having calved three times) followed
by class ten, Senior cow in milk (having calved more than four
times). Following these classes will be the Breeders Pair, Best
Udder in show, Best Exhibitor Bred Animal and Best New Exhibitor
(not to have shown at Northern Expo In the last five years).
Just before the grand finale the presentations and prizes will
be awarded to the Premier Breeder (Breeder with most points in
the show) and Premier Exhibitor (Exhibitor with most points in
the show). Following these sought after awards will be the moment
everyone is waiting for as all the 1st and 2nd prize class winners
grace the ring once again to an electrifying atmosphere as the
judge taps his Grand Champion, Reserve Champion and Honourable
Mention of the 2007 “Silver Edition” Northern Expo
Holstein Show.
Awards are then presented to the handlers of the Grand Champion
and Reserve Grand Champion. Of particular interest surely to
exhibitors is that this one day show awards prizes to tenth place
with animals awarded the prestigious titles receiving £500
for the Grand Champion, £250 Reserve Champion £150
Honourable Mention and £150 to the Junior Champion.
The show is an evening event commencing at 6pm (with free entry
to the show) in order to allow farmers and businesses to finish
chores before attending along with having the added appeal to
the young Holstein enthusiasts it is staged in the school half
term. Refreshments will be available and a pay bar on site for
the evening.
Entries are invited for this years show by contacting our secretary
Jenni Wharton on 012228 792352/ 07752 060406 or by email at info@holstein-expo.co.uk.
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