The Royal Ulster Agricultural Society has announced father-daughter duo Afron Jones and Alaw Evans as judges at this year’s Royal Ulster Premier Beef & Lamb Championships.
Travelling from North Wales, Afron is set to judge the cattle classes and championship whilst his daughter Alaw will be focusing on the calf and cattle young handler classes.
Afron Jones
Afron, a renowned Welsh cattle judge, is no stranger to the ring having exhibited his first calf at the age of 10 at a local Christmas fat stock show. Fifty years later his commitment to the showing circuit continues to flourish as he sources and breeds fat cattle throughout North Wales for customers across the UK.
The pinnacle of Afron’s showing career came in 1988 when his homebred heifer Ebony, only 11 months old, won the Supreme Championship at the Royal Smithfield Show. The heifer was later sold for £15,000 and a sirloin from this award-winning animal was presented to the Queen Mother at Clarence House.
Afron’s judging career has spanned over many years with invitations to judge across the UK and Ireland at the Royal Smithfield Show, Scottish National Winter Fair, Borderway Agri Expo, Royal Welsh Show and Northern Ireland Commercial Cattle Exhibitors’ Club Calf Show to name a few.
On the day Afron will be looking for ‘style, presence and correctness in a balanced, well-fleshed animal’.
Alaw Evans
Having toured the wider cattle showing circuit as a child with her family, Alaw’s passion for farming, cattle and showing commercial cattle has been evident from a young age. The knowledge and expertise passed down from her father helped to prepare her for not only developing her family farm with husband Dafydd, but to also make a name for herself as a well-respected cattle judge throughout Wales.
Alaw showed cattle throughout her younger years and still maintains the record for the most consecutive championships and supreme championships within the YFC classes at the Anglesey Winter Fair. As she assesses the entrants in the Cattle Young Handler classes and searches for a rising star, she will be on the lookout for the ‘dedication, precision and practice that it takes to make a winner’.
As Alaw has focused predominantly on winter fat stock shows over the last 10 years, she has exhibited at the Agri Expo in Carlisle, the Royal Smithfield Show and the Anglesey and Welsh Winter Fairs with homebred stock.
In the calf classes her expertise from her own commercial beef suckler herd and success in the showing circuit will lead her in search of ‘a calf with style, presence and correctness with full potential to be the next big thing on the showing circuit the following season’.
The seventh Royal Ulster Premier Beef & Lamb Championships will take place on Tuesday 26th November at the Eikon Exhibition Centre, Lisburn. To keep up to date with the latest news and running order for the day visit follow the Royal Ulster Premier Beef & Lamb Championships on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X.
