2019 ABAB Coloured Breeds Showmanship Judge announced
23rd May 2019
The 2019 ABAB Calf Show judge has been announced as Claire Swale. Claire hails from Lancashire in the U.K, where she lives with her husband David and two sons Jack (19) and Harvey (18).
Claire owns 50 Holsteins registered under her own “Heavenly” prefix, the majority of which are housed alongside the family run Joylan herd, which milks 500 cows, farms over 800 acres and retails the majority of their own milk independently, a few elite animals including Jerseys are partnered and housed in North America.
In recent years, the Heavenly prefix has delivered several top bulls into A.I, including Heavenly Golden Dreams, a former #1 Type leader, which was sold to Italy.
With a strong emphasis on type and cow families, the majority of Heavenly animals trace back to some of the most illustrious names in North America, including descendants from MD-Delight Durham Atlee, Knonaudale Jasmine, Rainyridge Tony Beauty, Lylehaven Lila Z, Lovhill Goldwyn Katrysha and Vandyk-K Integrity Paradise.
After leaving school and fitting cattle for a period she studied Dairy Herd Management and went on to rejuvenate and re-launch a successful platform for selling cattle in the UK, hosting regular monthly sales of up to 200 head each month through Lancaster Dairy Sales.
Claire is extremely well travelled, documenting the results and photos from shows all over the world to a global audience. These opportunities to travel and visit some of the world’s top breeders also allowed her to write and illustrate their stories over a number of years for Cowsmopolitan Dairy Magazine.
Today, Claire buys and sells cattle, and owns and operates a successful export company, specialising in supplying and delivering dairy cattle for the export market, as well as continuing to provide online coverage of the shows.
Throughout her 20 year. judging career, Claire has had the opportunity to judge conformation and showmanship all over the UK, and in multiple foreign countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Switzerland.
In 2019 she became the first person from outside North America to judge the highly acclaimed 4-H Classic Showmanship competition at the Royal Winter Fair in Canada, a competition which over 400 finalists from across Canada competed in.
Claire considers herself extremely fortunate to have a career in an industry she loves, working with great cows and great people. Passionate about the Youth of our industry, Claire is excited to be the 2019 judge for the Coloured Breeds Showmanship classes at the 2019 ABAB Calf show.
