ABS Australia/Ridley All Breeds National Youth Show
Waylon Barron is 37 years old and hails from Cambooya, on the Darling Downs of Queensland. The Barrons’ Ardylbar operation is a family affair, which includes Mr Barron’s parents Adrian and Sheryl, brother Tyler, wife Tash and children Hunter, Ayce and Blaze. Currently the milking herd sits at around 180 animals, the major breed being Holstein with growing Jersey numbers. There are a handful of Illawarras owned in partnerships which call Ardylbar home.
Ardylbar has exhibited at the Toowoomba Royal Show, the Queensland Dairy Showcase, the Royal Queensland Show and at Holstein and Jersey Queensland feature shows taking home numerous breed, supreme champion, most successful exhibitor and breeder titles along the way.
Recently success has been awarded to the few Illawarra animals Mr Barron owns in partnership, notably the junior champion Illawarra, which moved forward to win the supreme junior champion title at Brisbane Royal Show 2019.
Through other partnerships, Mr Barron has also co-owned and exhibited class winners and grand champions in the Holstein and Jersey breeds at previous International Dairy Week events.
Mr Barron has had the pleasure of travelling to judge On-Farm Challenges across Australia for Holsteins and Jersey breeds and breed judging roles have taken him around Queensland for major shows.
IDW Sheri Martin Youth Showmanship Classes
Ben Govett, from Dingee in Victoria is no stranger to the IDW show ring. Milking 250 cows in the northern Victorian irrigation district, Mr Govett and his family have been to every IDW since it started.
Mr Govett is co-owner of current and two-time IDW supreme champion Sunstorm. Cows from Bendara Dairies have won grand champion in Australia’s National Brown Swiss Show for the past five years while the stud has won premier exhibitor and breeder for the last nine years.
Mr Govett has judged cows in all states of Australia and in New Zealand. He has also judged state and national finals for handler competitions.
Australia’s National Ayrshire Show
Francois Beaudry, Canada, has always had a deep passion for the Ayrshire breed. Based in Quebec, Canada, he is the co-owner, with his wife, of the Des Prairies herd, which has d won many awards in that field.
Mr Beaudry’s farm is known around the world for the quality of the animals it produces with many all Canadians titles to its record.
A great satisfaction is to sell individuals that bring success to their new owner such as Des Prairies Toutou, which won six grand champion titles at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair of Toronto. Mr Beaudry has also won the master breeder title twice.
He is a member the Canadian Ayrshire Association and has served as chairman of the board of directors in 2015 and 2016. He was also the Canadian delegate on the world Ayrshire federation for the past years.
Mr Beaudry is an experienced judge and has judged dairy shows in many countries including Canada, the US, Columbia, Finland, Sweden, South Africa and New Zealand.
Australia’s National Illawarra Show
Greg English lives in Malanda in Far North Queensland, where his family were pioneers of the region. The Eachamvale Illawarra stud was established there in 1908.
Mr English worked on the family farm all his life and in 2001, he and his wife, Bronwyn bought out his parents and took over the Eachamvale stud.
Since then he has focused on breeding quality, high production Illawarra cows with good udders. He now milks a predominately Illawarra herd of 180-200 cows.
Stud dairy cows and showing have always been a huge part of Mr English’s life, but in conjunction with this a fair bit of time is also devoted to off-farm activities. He is currently the federal senior vice president of the Illawarra Cattle Society of Australia and vice president of the Queensland branch, president of the Malanda Show Society, along with being a board member for the local AI co-op.
Australia’s National Guernsey Show
Grant Liebelt grew up in Echunga in the Adelaide Hills, SA, where, after leaving Urrbrae Agricultural School, he worked with his family on their dairy farm where they bred stud Guernseys under the ‘Dalrymple’ prefix.
He became interested in showing cattle when he was around the age of 17, entering Guernsey cows in the Tanunda Feature Show and Royal Adelaide Show. Although changing to the Holstein breed in future years (under the Grantley prefix), Mr Liebelt maintained an interest in the breeding development of the Guernsey breed.
After receiving Master Breeder status in 2016, Grant retired from dairying with a herd dispersal in 2017, but continues to endeavour to breed top quality progeny from cattle he retained, who along with his daughter Bridget’s animals are housed at the Altmann family’s Blackwood Park Illawarra and Holstein Stud in Murray Bridge, SA.
Australia’s National Brown Swiss Show
Kevin Ziemba is employed as the eastern USA manger for STgenetics. In this position he manages the eastern USA sales team and specialises in genetic and reproductive tools that aid in dairy profitability. Mr Ziemba also has a role at STgenetics in the sire development department assisting in matings, acquisition and program direction.
Mr Ziemba is the coach of the Cornell University dairy judging team that has been a top five finishing team at World Dairy Expo for the past seven years.
Prior to joining STgenetics, Mr Ziemba has worked in the AI industry for 17 years as an employee manager, trainer and on-farm technical specialist.
Mr Ziemba along with his wife Barb and son Mason also enjoy breeding and developing good cattle. They have more than 40 head that they own under the ZiemBarbWay (ZBW Genetics) farm name.
They have focused predominantly within the Holstein breed having bred over 60 EX cows, numerous All-American, Jr All-American and All-NY award recipients. They also work with a small group of Jerseys and Brown Swiss and have bred All-American nominees in all three breeds.
Mr Ziemba has also had the privilege to judge cows throughout the US and Canada, judging numerous state, national and regional shows and has served as judge of the Hokkaido National Show in Japan.
Australia’s National Jersey Show
Chris Hill resides in Thurmont, Maryland, US, with his wife Jennifer. Together they own and operate MD-Hillbrook Sales & Service, a sales and auctioneering business. With a passion for the show ring, they maintain a small inventory of elite show cattle and have bred/owned 50+ All American nominations in the past 10 years.
Mr Hill manages and assists with about 35 sales a year throughout North America including the popular March Madness Sale Series, which debuted in 1996. In 2017 he co-managed his first “virtual” sale, Music City Celebration. This sale “celebrates” all facets of the registered dairy cattle business and engages people in a fun location.
Mr Hill has also had the honor of assisting with the National Sales of the Holstein and Jersey breeds. His true passion is auctioneering, which has allowed him to work with many people in the industry from herd dispersals to elite consignment sales.
He is an accomplished judge. His resume includes serving as the official for many county, district, state and national shows in the US, Canada and South America.
In 2014 he traveled to Uruguay to serve on a panel of coaches for the South American Judging Conference and returned this year to judge their National Show.
Australia’s National Holstein Show
Yan Jacobs from Cap-Santé, Quebec, Canada, has been appointed the judge of Australia’s National Holstein Show in 2020. Mr Jacobs was born and raised on Ferme Jacobs. He now owns this farm with his father, Jean Jacobs and his sister, Ysabel Jacobs.
Jacobs Farm is now milking 215 cows. Jacobs Farm has been eight times premier breeder at World Dairy Expo in Madison and also seven times at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto.
They have received 94 All-Canadian nominations and 60 All-American nominations.
Mr Jacobs’s judging roles has taken him around the world. In 2018 he judged the Utah Show and the Wisconsin Spring Show. He has also judged numerous county shows in Quebec.
In 2016 Mr Jacobs was the associate judge at World Dairy Expo in Madison. As well as farm responsibilities, Mr Jacobs has a full-time job raising his five children.
