SENIOR JUDGING PANEL - joined by category judges from each sponsoring company
David Cotton
Dairy farmer & Chairman of Judges
David farms with his family at Bridge Farm In Somerset with a 300-cow Autumn block calving herd and 300 youngstock. He is a Trustee of the Royal Bath and West Society and Chairman of the Dairy Show at Shepton Mallet.
Sean Rickard
Economist and advisor.
Former NFU Chief Economist, Director of Cranfield MBA programme and government advisor. Sean now provides independent economic analysis primarily relating to the food industry. He is also Chair of First Milk’s Members Committee.
Robert Craig
RABDF Chairman and Dairy Farmer
Robert oversees the management of three pasture based dairy units in the north of England covering over 2000ac milking around 1500 cows. Robert stepped off the First Milk board in October 2023 having served the maximum term for a non exec director. Awarded a Nuffield Scholarship in 2012, Robert maintains a keen interest in sustainable agriculture, in particular working with the Sustainabile Food Trust, based in Bristol.
Sarah Tomlinson
Lead Veterinary Science Expert at AHDB.
Sarah is the Lead Veterinary Science Expert at AHDB and is also the Technical Director of the TB Advisory Service (TBAS). More recently she has developed a keen interest in social science especially around human behaviour and achieving positive change on farm. Sarah is a member of the Government stakeholder group the bTB Partnership and the Welsh Government TB Technical Advisory Group, she is also a British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA) director, an RABDF Trustee and a board member of the NBA.