AN outstanding line-up of judges has been announced for Borderway Dairy UK Expo 2018.

Organisers Harrison & Hetherington will stage the event at the Borderway Exhibition Centre, Carlisle, on Saturday, March 10.

The four judges are Selwyn Donald from New Zealand, Dean Malcolm from Australia, Alan Timbrell from England and Ann Laird from Scotland.

David Pritchard, event organiser and H&H operations director, was thrilled to attract such high-calibre judges to the event which last year attracted more than 7,000 visitors.

The event attracts some of the UK's finest livestock and the judges will have to sift through 380 head of cattle in more than 70 classes.

The Holstein, Ayrshire & Brown Swiss classes will be judged by Selwyn Donald who owns the 400 head 'Arran' herd of Ayrshires in New Zealand.

He has a long list of judging duties to his name and is New Zealand's most travelled judge of any breed.

He has exhibited at many shows in New Zealand and won Supreme of the Breed at the 2016 NZ Dairy Event in both the Ayrshire and Combined Breeds Section. He is the only exhibitor to have won the Intermediate Championship in the Holstein, Ayrshire, Jersey and Combined Breeds Sections.

His family’s semen company markets genetics from Cogent, Alta Genetics, Semenzoo, Intermizoo, Jet Stream, OHG and Genetics Australia.

Australia’s Dean Malcolm will judge the Dairy Shorthorn, Jersey & Red & White Show. He is the co-owner/operator of Bluechip Genetics and industry publication CrazyCow. Well known throughout the world for his BlueChip Prefix, he and his wife dispersed the herd in October 2016 for an Australasian record gross and average for a one-day dispersal.

Alan Timbrell, a partner in Millford Ayrshire’s and Fordmill Holstein’s will judge the national British Friesian show. He currently works for Alta Genetics as their UK key account manager and is the Ayrshire Cattle Society’s Breed Heritage chairman and West Midland Holstein Club president.

The Showmanship classes will be judged by Ann Laird, the Solutions Coordinator for Semex UK and who is one of the UK’s rising stars in the judging ring.

She has played an integral role in the development of the Blythbridge Holstein herd both on the farm and in the show ring.

Borderway UK Dairy Expo will also highlight the many leading and innovation organisations that steer the dairy industry, including the latest technologies and developments from nutrition, genetics, animal health, machinery and breed society stands.