Farming Talk: Dairy Event has been through so many changes

Even after my very best attempts at persuasion, the taxi driver who dropped me at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham towards the end of last year remained totally unconvinced that nearly 200 dairy animals, including milking cows, could be found within those exhibition halls.

Not too surprising, perhaps, for this was only the second year that the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers had staged its annual Dairy Event and Livestock Show at the NEC.

This show ranks highly among Europe's leading events for the livestock sector. It now attracts more than 16,000 visitors a year from over 25 countries. But this modern 'hi- tech business' event is a little different from the first dairy show over 130 years ago.

The London Dairy Show, as it was then called, was held at Olympia, in London, from approximately 1876. The show was considered the highlight of the UK's farming calendar and was not solely concerned with dairy breeds, but covered a wide range of breeds and produce, from poultry to cheese.

The early focus was on cattle competitions to encourage breed improvement, and as well as dairy cattle classes, there were additional classes for pigs, goats and chickens. The show was also renowned for milking trials, which helped to establish the value of milk quality in terms of butterfat and protein content, the benefits of which the industry still enjoys today.

Those of us born early enough can remember the excitement of going to London to the Dairy Show, to see cows in the halls of Olympia and wellie boots on the streets of the big city.

My first dairy show was in 1963, and I have missed only a few in the intervening years, but it has always provided an invaluable source of new information and pointers to the future. In 1963, incidentally, there were some 120,000 dairy farmers in the UK; today there are less than 14,000. There lies the challenge to the organisers.

In 1974, following the development of the showground at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire, the organisers decided to move the show to the more rural environment of Stoneleigh where it stayed until 2010 when it moved to the NEC.

While travelling that long road from Olympia to the NEC, the structure of the industry has changed dramatically, as has its needs. Dairy cows and cattle breeding continue to play an important part of the modern show, but the focus is very much on business, on technical developments, on wider issues such as demonstrating diversification opportunities, power generation and adding value from existing farm assets.

That NEC taxi driver didn't know what he was missing!

John Sumner is an independent dairy consultant from Church Stretton