Judging at the Australian Grand Dairy Awards 2012

Results from the 2012 Australian Grand Dairy Awards (AGDA) were announced this week, but did you know that judging took place in November last year? The results were probably one of the dairy industry's best kept secrets over the past few months, not even revealed to we humble judges until the big announcement on Wednesday.

It was my first time judging at AGDA, and a great honour, as only 10 judges are selected from across Australia.

Cheese judges at the 2012 Australian Grand Dairy Awards,
with the Dairy Australia cow.

AGDA essentially acts as a 'Grand Final' for all the cheeses that have achieved Gold medals in the various 'qualifying shows' throughout the year. Qualifying shows include the Agricultural Society shows (such as the Sydney Royal) in most state capital cities, the Dairy Industry Association of Australia (DIAA) competitions in each state (except Tasmania), and the Australian Speciality Cheesemakers' Association (ASCA) annual show.

Being a newbie judge this year, I was struck by some of the differences - and similarities - between judging at AGDA and, say, the Sydney Royal. For example:

• we judged individually, not in groups, and with absolutely no discussion or comparing of results inside the judging room
• all judges are created equal - there are no associates, just fully-fledged judges
• judges were from diverse backgrounds, including retailers, dairy technicians, chefs, distributors, food writers
• all cheeses were judged 'blind' (no, that doesn't mean we were blind-folded, but that identifying labels and packaging were removed from the cheeses)
• the 20-point scoring system was used, but without the need to include detailed feedback on the judging sheets
• all judges completed all classes
• the Champion cheeses in each class are the cheeses with the highest score in the class
• the Grand Champion cheese is the one with the highest overall score
• judging was not a long, laborious process, but relatively straight-forward, and we easily finished judging all 90 cheeses before lunch

It is this last point that surprised me the most. What a refreshing change to easily breeze through 90 cheeses before lunch! Which is not to say that we glossed over them, but explaining this highlights the basic premise of the competition.

Cheeses that qualify to enter AGDA have already won Gold medals, so they are already considered to be excellent cheeses. Our job as judges at AGDA is to select the best of the best, so while we still take the time to carefully score each cheese out of 20, we don't need to labour over identifying individual faults, and writing detailed comments.



I'm tempted to offer a prize for the most
creative caption for this photo. Anyone
fancy a game of cheese frisbee?

There is another basic premise that warrants explanation. Dairy Australia, the industry body that oversees the Australian Grand Dairy Awards, has what some consider to be a narrow definition of "dairy". That is, it generally only considers products made with bovine milk to be dairy products. This is because Dairy Australia represents farmers who produce cow's milk, and is principally funded by the Dairy Service Levy, paid by farmers based on liquid cow's milk production.

For the purposes of AGDA, this definition was acceptable when all cheeses and other dairy products in Australia were only produced from cow's milk, but is it now that a significant number of cheeses, milks, yoghurts, etc, are being produced in Australia from non-bovine sources such as goats and sheep?

In acknowledgement of the growing number of sheep's and goat's milk cheeses winning gold medals at qualifying shows, AGDA introduced a class called "Goat's and Sheep's Milk Cheeses" several years ago. But, all of these non-bovine cheeses are judged within this same class, with washed rinds, semi-hard cheeses, and blues all in together. This doesn't sit well with some judges, considering these non-bovines constituted 25% of entries this year.

The other point worth noting is that entries in the goat's and sheep's milk class are not eligible for the title of Grand Champion Cheese - the rules of the competition dictate that only a cow's milk cheese can be crowned Grand Champion.

This is fair enough considering Dairy Australia is an industry body representing cow's milk producers, but a shame when you consider that there is no other wholly national competition acknowledging the best of the best cheeses in Australia. As the quantity - and quality - of cheeses made from sheep's, goat's and buffalo's milk in Australia continues to grow, we can only hope that this might change.

Finally, you might be wondering why judging took place months ago, yet the results were only announced a few days ago. One of the main purposes of the AGDA competition is to be able to promote winning products on a national scale. To do this really well, the Dairy Kitchen and other education-related sections of Dairy Australia need time to prepare associated resources, such as their annual cook book and information leaflets.

It also gives them time to prepare a fabulous party for the announcement of awards, showcasing the champion cheeses, of course. Move over cheddar cubes on crackers, and make way for Cheddar Brulee, featuring the Grand Champion Maffra Cloth Aged Cheddar.

If only I'd made it to Melbourne for the Awards ceremony...