US judge praises Australian Herefords

He spent all day in hot, humid conditions picking his way through more than 300 entries from 73 exhibitors (64 from NSW) as breeders made sure this years Hereford feature show at the Sydney Royal was a genuine spectacle.

And in the middle of a sea of whiteface cattle was PJ (Peter John) Budler, 37, calmly and methodically working his way through many large and evenly contested classes.

Mr Budler was born in South Africa and has become the first beef cattle judge to adjudicate at a national show on all inhabited continents.

He has lived in Fort Worth for the past five years where he operates cattlemarket.net LLC, an international genetics and consulting company.

Ive loved it (judging in Sydney), he said. There were so many breeding age bulls.

Before the judging started Mr Budler shared his breeding and judging philosophies with the packed rinside audience.

First and foremost, cattle had to be able to eat, walk and reproduce.

They had to have fertility, longevity, adaptability and efficiency.

And quality cattle came in all shapes and sizes, he said.

At one point, after judging an intermediate bull class, Mr Budler sensed onlookers may be thinking his decisions were lacking consistency.

He said some people may be thinking this judge shoots with a shotgun and is going all over the place (with his decisions).

But said the bulls being paraded before him came from such different climates, conditions and breeding programs. The bulls werent going to look the same but were all good with muscle, structural integrity and masculinity.

At the conclusion of the judging Mr Budler said he had seen cattle that could make an impact on the Hereford breed worldwide.

There is so much quality here and across the pond (NZ), he said.

He said Australian Hereford breeders should take up the challenge of injecting their Hereford genetics into the likes of the US, Canada and South America.

Mr Budler had said prior to arriving in Australia that there was a lack of collaboration between the Northern American and Australasian beef breeding sectors in terms of pedigree sharing and data sharing.

He alluded to the problem again in the Sydney judging ring, suggesting Australian Hereford breeders would need to tackle the problem to sell their top genetics into key exports markets.

Mr Budler is a self-confessed beef cattle nut but has a special fondness for the Hereford breed.