Details of the Special Awards made at the 2015 Annual Conference
Kiteroa Trophy - SELWYN DONALD
Selwyn Donald is a well known identity in the dairy world and the Ayrshire world in particular. As a prominent showman and judge in both the Ayrshire and Holstein-Friesian show rings and as a stock agent involved in numerous prominent sales throughout New Zealand, he has a style all of his own.
Selwyn milks just under 400 cows on his farm at Featherston and is the fourth generation to farm the Arran Ayrshire Stud. He has served on the Ayrshire New Zealand Board for two terms (6 years) up until 1996, being one of the youngest Board members in the history of the breed. During this time he held the convenorship for the production committee. He has been the past president of the Wairarapa East Coast Ayrshire Club.
Selwyn was also on the organising committee for the World Ayrshire Conference when hosted here and took on the responsibility of organising the North Island Championships and conference sale that was held in Hamilton at the time.
Selwyn was a major player in the creation and setting up of the New Zealand Dairy Event being the first chairman and is still on the committee. This event has grown from strength to strength each year and is a credit to Selwyn and his committee.
In his earlier years Selwyn won both the Ayrshire and Friesian Young Judges competitions and had judged his first Royal Show in Invercargill at the age of 25. Since then, Selwyn has judged throughout New Zealand and many times internationally in Australia, England and South Africa. Selwyn has a real flair with the microphone and judging is a real passion for him; where some people are very good judges but are put off by the microphone. You could say Selwyn is the complete package - he is one of the better judges in New Zealand but because he is so fluent with the microphone he can give confident, sound reasonings to his decisions while at the same time make it entertaining for the audience.
In particular, over the past twelve months Selwyn has been an ardent ambassador for Ayrshires internationally. His judging appointment to the Dairy Expo in Birmingham, UK last year during the World Ayrshire Federation Executive meeting brought New Zealand judging to the world’s attention. This year Selwyn has been selected to judge in Ireland and South Africa and named as the Associate Judge at the World Dairy Expo to take place in Madison, Wisconsin in October. This appointment is very prestigious, with Selwyn being the first New Zealander of any breed to be named and only the second person from the Southern Hemisphere.
Bell Booth Achiever Award - BRUCE EADE
Bruce farms in the family company with his parents on their 700 acre farm in West Otago where he is a 25% stakeholder and director of the company. He is committed to the Ayrshire breed by contributing to the breed’s public image and future, as well as to the youth of the Southland/Otago region.
One of his passions within the breed is the showing of the pedigree cattle. He does all the pre-showing selection, nutrition, conditioning and clipping of the animals. He takes sole responsibility for this as well as the presentation and parading of the cattle at the shows he attends. This year he exhibited the South Island Champion cow at the Otago/Taieri 155th Jubilee show. Several senior judges have commented to him and his parents on the high standard of presentation which he achieves at the shows. He has won other championships in the region as well.
Bruce organises the club’s Youth camp where he demonstrates the selection, feeding, clipping and preparation of the animals for the young people who attend the camp. He passes on his knowledge of parading and exhibiting of the animals as well. At the Youth camp Bruce organised to take 2 calves to the Gore A&P show for 2 young children who didn’t have Ayrshire calves to take and were dead keen on showing their calves off. Bruce gets a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment out of doing little things like this for the young people.
Bruce has held several senior positions in the club and is on the organizing committee for the 2015 Ayrshire conference in June this year. He is responsible for organizing the clubs" Southern Lights Sale" at this conference.
On farm Bruce does all the A.I.ing of the cows as well as helping to select the sires for the herd. He is a senior judge of N.Z.Ayrshire Association. He is also a committee member on the Gore A & P show. Off farm Bruce enjoys going on classic car rallies and likes nothing better than taking his wife Tanya and girls Sophie and Natalie for a spin in his classic Holden Statesman V8.
Bell Booth Achiever Award - KELLY ALLISON
Kelly won the Won the Ayrshire N Z Young Judge Competition in 1998, and placed second in the All Breeds competition that same year. He was made a Senior Judge in 2003 and became a Jersey Judge in 2010.
In the late 1990’s he went on to the Otago-Taieri A & P Show Committee, where he was the cattle marshall from 2002 to 2007 and the President from 2007 to 2009. He was a representative on the Southern District Royal Agricultural Society and is now on the Executive of the Royal Agricultural Society, being the only dairy representative. Kelly has organized and run the Otago-Taieri on farm Dairy Heifer Competition for 15 years, and entered heifers every year with some success.
He has coached West Taieri school boy rugby for four seasons, their under 10 team last season won the Dunedin competition, undefeated all season.
Kelly and his wife Amanda and have three children and Kelly helps his boys Fynn & Reuben to show calves at the local A & P shows, and also shows Bonacord animals. Kelly graduated from Lincoln University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture). Has been featured in articles in the Otago Daily Times and the Dairy exporter about Ayrshire cows on the Taieri & showing. He always pushes Ayrshires on the Taieri which is a strong Holstein Friesian area.
As a 1/3rd share holder with wife Amanda of Bonacord Farms, and the sharemilker on the farm, along with the help of his staff he has had top herd in Ward 9 in 2008-09 and the top herd of N Z for 300 or more cows on 3 occasions. The production of the Ayrshire cows in the herd against the other breeds the red and whites are out there doing it.
Inaugural Graeme Knight Memorial Trophy - NEIL MCDONALD
As Secretary/Manager for the New Zealand Ayrshire Association for over 25 years, Graeme wrote many articles both for internal publication and for the wider dairy community. He was greatly respected as both a writer and photographer, and his knowledge of the breed and it’s history was bar none. Even from retirement to his passing in 2013, Graeme wrote regular ‘Herds of Yesteryear’ article for the Ayrshire Bulletin which were much enjoyed by many members, old and young alike. He also collated and wrote the Ayrshire Centenary Book which was published in 2009. Graeme was an Honorary Life Member of Ayrshire New Zealand. The Graeme Knight Memorial Trophy has been presented by Graeme’s daughters Carolyn and Alison in their father’s memory.
Since Graeme’s passing, Neil McDonald has taken up the mantle and prepared interesting anecdotal based articles for more recent Bulletins. His has picked up both writing and research talents from Graeme, and used these to great effect to prepare articles that members have greatly enjoyed.
Ayrshire New Zealand hopes that Neil will continue to contribute to the Bulletin on a regular basis.
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