Borderway Expo unveils line-up of judges for 2023 event in Carlisle

Harrison & Hetherington is delighted that three outstanding members of the British breeding and showing elite will judge the 17th Borderway Agri Expo, which will take place on Friday, October 27, in Carlisle.

Borderway Agri Expo has established a reputation for attracting the highest quality of livestock to compete in cattle and sheep classes that will be live-streamed to an audience of thousands across the world.

This year’s judges are all specialist in their field and together bring with them decades of knowledge and breeding expertise.

Judging the main cattle classes is farmer and breeder Gwyn Edwards, from north Wales, travelling from Donegal in Ireland to judge the baby beef classes is Pearse McNamee and the sheep classes will be judged by noted sheep breeder John Sinnett.

John Sinnet, sheep judge

The event has become an important showcase of British livestock breeding excellence, and a vital platform for sharing the latest developments, ideas and advice in the livestock and wider agricultural industries. It celebrates the best of cattle and sheep breeds, champions of the industry and future stars. It provides a platform for the promotion of the UK’s full range of commercial breeds, for new technology and innovation, products and professional services.

The spotlight at Agri Expo will be focused on the show rings, and on the judges who will shoulder the responsibility for choosing the best of the best in the ultra-competitive cattle, baby beef, and sheep classes.

Senior auctioneer James Little says: “The credibility and authority of our judges is absolutely key to the credibility of the competition at Agri Expo. They will be casting their eyes over some of the very best stock from all over the UK and Ireland and making critical judgements on very fine margins of difference. So we are really delighted that three such respected judges have accepted our invitation to take on this task.”

Cattle this year will be judged by farmer and breeder Gwyn Edwards. Highly respected on the show circuit as a winning breeder and as a judge, Gwyn farms 200 head of beef cattle and 600 ewes on 700 acres in North Wales, recently achieving pedigree herd status for his home-bred Limousins.

He has shown cattle with consistent success for more than 40 years, winning the English Winter Fair Championship in 2019 and is the only person to date to have won the Welsh Winter Fair Supreme Championship three times.

“It is such an honour to have been invite to judge. I think everyone who knows me will know what I am looking for,” he says. “My ideal would be meaty and very correct, but the standard at Agri Expo will be exceptional and the winner at Borderway is the envy of all the winter shows, so judging them will be a very challenging task.”

Baby beef will be judged by Pearse McNamee, one of Ireland’s most successful and respected producers of pedigree Limousin & Commercial show cattle, calves and embryos.

Pearse Mcnamee, baby beef judge

A regular seller of top-priced show cattle, he has won and bred champion calf five times and reverse twice at Tullamore National Livestock Show since 2012, Pearse has also supported Agri Expo every year from its inception and in 2018 he took Reserve Overall Champion with a home-bred Limousin heifer .

He says: “It is without doubt the best show of commercial cattle in the UK and Ireland. Agri Expo has set a benchmark where the best of the very best are on show for all to see, and I am over the moon to have been invited to judge the ‘baby beef’.

"I will be looking for something with style, correctness, show quality, a good head and legs, and lots of character! It will be a challenge, but I am looking forward to it.”

Sheep this year will be judged by John Sinnett, who in a lifetime of farming on the Welsh Borders established a reputation as one of the UK’s outstanding producers of pedigree and commercial sheep, finishing some 20,000 lambs a year by the mid 1990s.

A leading breeder of pedigree Suffolk rams, John was the first in the UK to breed cross-bred rams, specialising after foot and mouth on developing a winning combination of good genetics from the most successful terminal sires – Charolais, Suffolk, Beltex and Texel.

Now fully retired from farming, John has moved to Wetheral, not far from Borderway, and remains a dedicated supporter of the sheep industry and its principal showcases such as Agri Expo.

He says: “I felt I had completed my judging duties, but I am really honoured to be invited to judge here this autumn. When it comes to picking the best commercial traits, one size clearly does not fit all, but in this case, I will be looking for an easily fleshed, quality article, and judging based on the current demands and criteria of the main commercial finishers and processors.”

Further details will be updated regularly on the event’s dedicated website at www.borderwayagriexpo.uk.