The 10th Victorian Winter Fair dairy show wrapped up its 2024 competition with 185 entries in front of almost 1500 visitors across the three-day event.
A first-class line-up of Holsteins brought together the cream of Victoria’s dairy breeders and producers to the Bendigo Exhibition Centre from July 2 to 4.
Organiser Claire Modra said the show was a great success with more people on the heifer day than in previous years.
“The quality of the entries was very good,” Mrs Modra said.
“The feedback from the judge (Lachlan Fry) was that there was very much depth within every class.
“He said overall it was very consistent, and you could see that when he had the champion line-up, they were all similar sorts of cows.”
Tuesday, July 2 saw junior handlers compete with their showmanship skills across six categories.
Nate Chesworth excelled in the ring to win first place in the Under-12 ProDairy Junior Showmanship.
Stacey Gleeson won the same category in the 12-15 years class, and Abbie Hanks won the 16-21 years class.
In the Junior Judging class, Isla Robertson won first place for handlers under-12, Violet Dodd won 12-15 years and Luke Gardiner won for handlers aged 16-21.
The honour of Supreme Senior Champion went to Rockwood Park Atley Cretonne, exhibited by View Fort Holsteins and Jerseys.
Reserve Champion was won by Carisma Samite Piper, from M. and J. Deenen.
Supreme Junior Champion was won by Gorbro Sidekick Ruth by Gorbro Holsteins.
Supreme Udder of the senior show was won by Winwood Tatoo Lights Out, exhibited by Mal Nikora and Kelly Bleijendaal.
Mrs Modra has seen the show go from strength to strength since its inception in 2014 and thinks the formula for running the event does not need tweaking for next year.
“Why change it?”