Last week I visited the Sydney Easter Show with eastAUSmilk president Joe Bradley.
It was my first opportunity to visit the show and I was interested to see what it was like after hearing so much about it.
The show is very impressive and a great legacy from the Sydney Olympics from 24 years ago.
There is so much space throughout the whole venue and so many great facilities.
The dairy pavilion is also very impressive being so large and comfortable for both cows and farmers. Also, for members of the public to see where their milk comes from.
The milking shed was quite remarkable and allowed the public to comfortably watch cows being milked in a real modern herringbone dairy without getting in the way of farmers and the cows.
The judging area being adjacent to the dairy pavilion also made it very easy for all, although some rain on the final day of judging caused a slight inconvenience.
The quality of the cows was impressive and the international judges noted the improvement in the quality of animals over the past five years including for the Brown Swiss breed.
I am a complete novice when it comes to judging the quality of cows, but I'm sure my Italian friend Angelo speaks with authority when he states this.
It was also great to meet so many dairy farmers and have many discussions with them about the challenges facing them. It would have been great to speak to more farmers, but the demands and stresses of showing cows means that I didn't have that opportunity with all farmers.
I look forward to one day returning to the Easter show. More importantly, I look forward to greater mixing between NSW and Queensland dairy farmers at future events including the Sydney show and Ekka.
