Bill Davenport first showed Ayrshires at the Big E at age 7 in 1970 with his grandfather Preston Davenport and his renowned Toll Gate Farm herd. Bill hasn’t missed a year showing Ayrshires at the Big E since then. He grew up in 4-H, attended the New England 4-H Dairy Show at the Big E for 8 years, and has been involved with brother Jim’s dairy farm in Ancram, NY since 1986, where he keeps a small group of Ayrshires in the Toll Gate Holstein herd. He and his daughter Megan have enjoyed some success at the Eastern States National Ayrshire show at the Big E over the past few decades, having several first place winners, and junior champions in both the junior show and open show, resulting in several Junior and Open All-American nominations and winners. Bill also served as the Ayrshire Breed representative for several years at the Big E as well.

Bill attended the University of Connecticut and was an agriscience teacher in Woodbury, CT for 33 years and now serves as the Litchfield County 4-H Educator in Connecticut since 2019.

Bill competed at the Big E 4-H and collegiate Dairy Judging Contests as a youth, and since then has coached multiple FFA and 4-H dairy judging teams at the Big E dairy judging contests as well. He also has coached several UConn collegiate teams in the Big E Collegiate Dairy Judging contest.