Dairy cattle judge Graeme Norris, left, with Ian Anderson and his winning best diary heifer. 28648
By Melissa Grant
PAKENHAM was just a small country town when Graeme Norris thought he had judged his last lot of diary cattle at the Pakenham Show.
But when Mr Norris returned on Saturday after a 21-year absence he quickly discovered how things had changed.
“When I used to live here there were dairy farms nearby but they’re not there anymore,” he said.
The 57-year-old said the crowd was as strong as he remembered, but he had fewer cattle to judge on Saturday than he did at his last show in 1988.
“But you would expect that in suburbia,” he said.
Mr Norris is a Pakenham Show veteran. He showed Guernsey cattle at the Pakenham Show in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.
He enjoyed much success, and he was crowned inter-bred bull champion in the mid-’80s.
The former Pakenham resident, who now lives in Echuca, is an old hand at the judging caper too.
He has evaluated all six dairy breeds in Australia – Holstein, Jersey, Guernsey, Ayrshire, Brown’s Swiss and Illawarra – as well as beef cattle at country and royal shows in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia since 1978.
And on Saturday, the former Pakenham farmer was back judging Holstein and Jersey dairy cattle.
Mr Norris said it was all about the animal’s appearance and the way the cow carried itself.
“You look for dairy character correct structure of the animal, whether the animal walks properly, and it’s most important with dairy cows that they carry well-attached udders,” he explained.
“It’s important that they’re uniform in size and that the teats face directly to the ground.”
Mr Norris, who attended the show with his 88-year-old mother Muriel, said he hoped to be back at the Pakenham Racecourse next March.
“I would enjoy very much to come back to Pakenham,” he said.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, I’ve seen a lot of people I know, and it’s been a pleasurable day.”
