Among the contenders for the coveted Young Showmanship Championship at this year’s UK Dairy Expo, Jay Adamson brings a winning pedigree both for himself and the Ayrshire calves he will be showing.

Growing up on the family farm Swaites near Pettinain in Lanarkshire with parents John and Avril, grandparents William and Margaret, and younger brother Ryan, Jay has dairy farming and Ayrshire cattle in his DNA. His ambition is to be a dairy farmer, and at 16 he has just embarked on an agricultural apprenticeship that will take him through college while working from home helping with the family’s 210 milking cows.

Jay has been showing the family’s Ayrshires for half his lifetime, starting at the age of eight, and his growing array of rosettes from local and national shows include winning at the Highland Show in the calf section no less than three times. Alongside his father, Jay led the Dairy Expo 2022 Reserve Champion Calf and Champion Ayrshire, and he will be bringing at least two of the family’s Ayrshire calves and a milking heifer to compete for the Championship this year.

It is not just in the Showmanship classes where Jay has seen great success, also taking home rosettes for his cattle dressing skills and he was delighted to achieve second place at the national cattle dressing championships at Ayr Market in November 2022.

He gives his grandfather William the credit for his skills and success in the show ring. “My grandfather has been my greatest teacher and mentor his best piece of advice was to keep working at it, lots of practice, and you can never start halter training too early!”

That excellent advice clearly worked as well for Jay as it did for his calves and helped to give him an abiding passion for both farming and showing. “I love being in the ring, but showing has also brought me into contact with a lot of people my age from all over the country at big shows like Dairy Expo and many of them have become friends.”