Pat Nicholson has been appointed Great Southern Challenge judge for the Jersey Australia/Semex Great Southern and Great Northern Challenges later this month.
Winners of these two competitions will then be judged for the Great Australian Challenge and announced at the Jersey Australia annual general meeting in June 2020.
Mr Nicholson has previously judged at International Dairy Week and says judging the Great Southern Challenge is "right up there" in prestige.
“I’ve judged a lot of on-farm challenges over the years from all breeds and it’s an honour to be able to judge a competition like the Great Southern,” he said.
“You’re judging the best of the best.”
Mr Nicholson’s Jugiong Stud has had great success over many years, including Supreme Champions JUGIONG DAYDREAM 5744 in 2013 and JUGIONG ILAGAY 142 in 2003, along with several age category winners.
A former classifier, Mr Nicholson said he would be looking for “a good dairy cow with good, high, wide rear udders and strong ligaments".
“There’s no doubt competitions like this are getting stronger and stronger,” he said.
“As you get more people entering at the grassroots level and more herds involved, you’re identifying a lot of top cows that go through to the final.”
The Great Southern Challenge is being presented for the 21st time.
Jersey Australia president Chris MacKenzie said Mr Nicholson has the experience needed for the job.
“We look for judges with experience, a good knowledge of cows and who knows how to mark the scoresheet,” he said.
The judges will score entries over 22 categories in Australia’s premier On Farm Challenge competition with awards for 2-Year-Old, 3-Year-Old, 4-Year-Old, 5-Year-Old and Mature Cows and a Supreme Champion.The competition starts with club on-farm challenges. The Great Southern Challenge covers Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia and the Great Northern Challenge includes clubs from NSW and Queensland.Winners are then judged by a panel of three judges via video to determine the Great Australian Challenge winners.
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