Dear dairy, we won

By Sarah Schwager
A FIVE Ways dairy farmer has made it to the finals of the country’s largest livestock competition.
John Gardiner stormed through the Semex Holstein Australia On-Farm Competition West Gippsland section, winning prizes across three categories, and will now be a contestant in the South-East Australian grand final.
Mr Gardiner has been involved in the competition every year bar one since it began six years ago.
His father Harley started the company in 1948 and the family has had the farm in Five Ways for the past 40 years.
Mr Gardiner has been involved with breeding dairy cows since he was a kid.
He and wife Sherry now run the Avonlea farm.
Mr Gardiner said the competition helped give the farm advantages by putting them up against other farms and breeders.
“It brings our studs before the industry and is great publicity and promotion for the dairy farm,” he said.
Mr Gardiner will wait to see if the farm is passed down another generation.
His son Luke is only 17 months old but Mr Gardiner said he was already keen to give it a go.
He said he felt very fortunate that the family had won three classes, with Silky Figsie, Juror Jess and Magic Bettine cleaning up the senior two-year-old, senior four-year-old and mature cow (10 and over) sections.
Ten of the best Holstein cows from West Gippsland were selected to contest the South-East Australian finals of the Australia On-Farm Competition.
Conducted by breed association Holstein Australia, with artificial breeding organisation Semex, the competition attracted about 2500 entries from 500 breeders across Australia.
Unlike traditional shows, cattle are assessed on their home property, allowing breeders to compete on an equal basis, regardless of their location.
“This competition recognises the efforts of dairy farmers to improve their on-farm profitability by breeding quality dairy cows,” Semex general manager Jim Conroy said.
“The sheer size of this event is a credit to the efforts of the hundreds of the Holstein breeders who enter each year and the numerous branch officials and judges who make it happen.”
The South-East Australian finals will be held later this month.