THE final day of the Great Yorkshire Show proved a winner for the Queen - but was hit by revelations that a champion dairy cow had been disqualified for suspected udder tampering.

The premier agricultural event attracted tens of thousands of visitors over the course of three days.

It even proved lucky for Her Majesty the Queen, whose Cleveland Bay mare, Gallihowe Graceful Girl was entered into the show on Wednesday.

The horse was exhibited by Heather Ketley, who, with her husband Philip, keeps pure bred Cleveland Bays at Sutton-on-Forest near Easingwold, North Yorkshire.

The Ketleys, assisted by Geoffrey Benson, 84, also supply the rare breed horses to the Queen’s Carriage Breeding Programme, which results in them being used to pull royal carriages.

Mrs Ketley was given royal consent to show the horse at the Great Yorkshire Show and it came first in her class and took the reserve champion title.

Earlier in the week, there was also some show controversy, as an exhibitor was disqualified from the cattle classes for udder tampering.

The nine-year-old Holstein cow had been entered into the dairy classes, but was stripped of its champion title for suspected tampering. The reserve champion, owned by Elaine and Robert Butterfield, from Bentham, North Yorkshire, was promoted in its place.

Mrs Butterfield said they heard from other competitors that their nine-year-old cow, Newbirks Jazz, had been promoted to champion Holstein from reserve, but had not been officially informed.

The couple have won the title at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and had just returned from the European Holstein championships in Colmar, France.

“We just heard second hand that we had the champion title,” she said.

“I expect we’ll hear later if we have.”

Nigel Pulling, chief executive of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, which runs the show, confirmed the dairy animal had been disqualified and any other animals entered by the competitor would be unable to compete at the show for a further three years. The exhibitor will be given the right to appeal.

“We want the animals to win on their merits and there not to be any tampering at all," he said.

“Like all competitions, there are things you can do to make exhibits as attractive as possible, but there is a line and we believe this individual cow has crossed that line and should be disqualified.”

In the run-up to the 2013 Great Yorkshire Show, rumours that owners were tampering with cattle to give them an unfair advantage prompted the Yorkshire Agricultural Society to issue a statement saying they would not tolerate tactics such as gluing extra hair onto animals and pumping up udders with gas or liquid to boost their chances.

But Mr Pulling said overall, this year’s show had achieved its aim of celebrating the best of farming and rural life.

He said one of the highlights had been demonstrations of a robotic milking machine. He said it had proved a big draw for visitors and showed the kind of technology that could help the crisis-hit dairy industry, which is struggling with low milk prices.

He added: “Profitability in farming has declined in the last year or two and that needs to be reversed. Farmers needs to be properly recompensed for the food they create.

“But in good times and bad times the Great Yorkshire Show is here to celebrate what is best about the industry and inform the public about the great work the farmers do, not only in producing food, but in managing the countryside as well, both of which are critically important.”