By Margaret Maccoll
Dairy cow steward Kieth Humphreys praised the dairy cows at the Noosa Country Show on Friday but lamented the drop in attendees which was even lower than the 10 he’d predicted with only two dairies making the journey.
“These beautiful animals are a credit to the owners and a credit to the dairy industry,” Kieth said.
“The industry’s dying a slow death.”
The handful of cows came from Bellment Dairy near Gympie and Gleneche Jerseys of Kenilworth with the Gleneche Jerseys claiming the bulk of the first prize awards on the day.
Doug Embrey of Bellment Dairy has worked with dairy cows all his life and said he’d been through plenty of hard times in the industry.
“The prices go up but the price of milk doesn’t go up,” he said.
Thomas Wade of Gleneche Jerseys said the drought and increasing grain prices meant the industry was struggling at the moment.
Judge Clinton Kerr described the animals as “beautiful cows”, “as good as any cows in the state”.
“It’s an exceptional Jersey,” he said of the main winner with the second prize winner, a Swiss brown cow, just missing out for not possessing “the desirable attachments”.
