THE early start to Scotland's summer show season continued with a belter of a day at Ochiltree on Wednesday, where the strong line-up of dairy cattle could just about rival the entries forward at many other shows across the country.

And it was the dairy section that was to the fore when a fourth calver from George Templeton's 300-strong Knowe herd near Auchinleck went one better than her Ayrshire championship last year to lift the supreme honours this year. That was his Knowe Beatrice 7 Ex91, a Sterndale Rose Royce Red daughter that is recording 49kg since calving down at the beginning of March.

Standing reserve to her in the supreme championship, as picked out by the trio of judges, was the Holstein winner, David and Adam Montgomerie's Lessnessock Toystory Flo Ex91 from the local Ochiltree herd. This Jenny-Lou Marshall Toystory daughter was Holstein champion here in 2014 and, since calving her fifth at the start of the year, is yielding 55kg a day.

Also forward for the supreme honours was the beef champion, a Limousin cross heifer named Bella from Paul McHarg, Crofthead, Cumnock.

There were more celebrations for the Lessnessock and Knowe teams as the Montgomeries added to their haul of prizes with red rosettes for the best pair of any breed, best trio of any breed and best group of five dairy cattle, while the Templetons added red tickets for the best maiden dairy heifer and best pair of youngstock to their kist.

See the April 23 issue of The SF for more photos and all the leading award.