Following in from last week, here are more profiles of members of our judging panel for the YDP final, which is only a matter of days away! Last week we shared the profiles of John McEnroe the Showmanship Judge and Marie Louise Ryan the Stock judging judge, which you can view here.
Mark Phillips – Clipping & dressing judge
Mark Phillips is a well known breeder of Pedigree Limousin cattle which is run under the Newmark prefix. He is also known for being a freelance Stockman, having brought out many champions of different breeds. These include interbreed champions at the Royal Highland, the “Royal”, Royal Welsh, Great Yorkshire plus many champions at county and local show level.
Mark is also a prominent judge, having judged at the Stirling bull sales, Carlisle red ladies sale and many other shows and sales besides also having the privilege of being asked to judge in the North and South of Ireland.
He is also known for turning out many cattle at the Carlisle Limousin Sales, having brought out 2 overall Champions as well as countless other prize winners and high priced bulls and females, with bulls up to 50,000gns and heifers up to 28,000gns.
Mark is also keen to help and encourage the younger generation of stock-persons in their cattle presentation skills having been a former trainer for the YDP and judge for the young handlers at the National Young Stars competition in 2016 and also the young handlers at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2015. Mark has also partaken in show commentary during the interbreed championship competitions.
By day Mark is a professional cattle hoof trimmer, which takes him all over the North of England and South West Scotland where he enjoys seeing the benefits of preventative and remedial hoof trimming and also catching up with clients and discussing grass roots farming issues.
Alistair Cormack – clipping and dressing judge
Alistair has been involved with Aberdeen-Angus cattle all his life, firstly with his Father at Ashley then latterly at Carlhurlie where he was Farm Manager for 24 years. One of his greatest achievements was during his years at Ashley. He took three bulls and a heifer to the October Bull Sales in 1989, the heifer was Female Champion, the bulls were Senior, Intermediate and Junior Champions which went on to be Overall Champion and Reserve. A record that still stands today.
In recent years Alistair has had four Perth Bull Sales Champions and seven Female Champions. He also enjoys Fat Stock showing and has won The Queen’s Cup for the best Pure Bred at ‘the old’ Smithfield Show in London on two occasions, both times with Aberdeen-Angus steers. He has also been Champion once and Reserve Champion once at The Scottish Winter Fair.
While at Carlhurlie he had four Highland Show Champions, the most memorable in 1999 was when he won with a yearling heifer who went on to be Inter-Breed Champion.
Alistair has been self-employed for nearly two years doing both tractor and cattle work. This summer along with his wife and son he won The Highland Show with the yearling heifer Carlhurlie Darcie, this was really special for Alistair and his family as it was during the same year as the Angus World Forum.
He has also judged at Shows and Sales up and down the Country so is very much looking forward to being a part of the Judging Panel at this years YDP final and wishes all the competitors the Best of Luck.
We can’t wait for the final this Saturday and hope to see you all there!