Thousands flock to see the animals and produce at South of England show

7:49am Friday 8th June 2007

By Andy Dickenson

The South of England Show is upon us once again. Andy Dickenson reaches for the straw, dusts off his wellies and gets stuck in.

Farmers celebrated the South of England Agricultural Society's 40th birthday in style, exhibiting more livestock than ever at the South of England Show.

Hundreds of cows, horses, pigs, hens, goats and llamas - as well as a few human beings - greeted about 15,000 visitors on the first day.

Guest of honour Princess Alexandra launched proceedings, continuing the longstanding tradition of royal support for the three-day event.

It was the third time the princess has toured the Ardingly showground in recent years, this time choosing to exhibit her love for goats.

Belinda Cole, spokeswoman for the show, said: "The princess specifically asked to be taken to the goat marquee.

"She developed a love for the animals when she was evacuated to a farm during the Second World War.

"She's also a Capricorn and feels an affinity with goats so she spent quite a lot of time in there cuddling and kissing them."

Youngsters aged nine and ten, from St Peter's Primary School in Ardingly, stood with their arms full of locally grown fruit and vegetables and locally baked meat pies.

David Allam, chairman of the South of England Agricultural Society (SEAS), said: "We thought having the children dressed up would be a good way to bring attention to the superb food being produced in Sussex.

Blockbuster "This is a priority for the society and we have already made great strides. All our catering contractors must now offer food that is traceable to its origin and, whenever possible, be produced locally or regionally.

"For example, our ice cream sellers are now using English dairy produce and many people have commented on how much better it tastes."

Organisers said the weekend was set to be a "blockbuster event" for local farmers, with a higher number of livestock entrants to competitions than there have been for 12 years.

A total of about 2,000 animals are being exhibited at the show, which costs £250,000 a day to stage. It is manned almost entirely by volunteers, some of whom have been helping out for 30 years.

The event has only been missing from the Sussex calendar once in the past 40 years, when foot and mouth hit in 2001.

Miss Cole said: "We've got more animals being shown than ever before, which is really impressive, particularly because of the problems farmers have faced over the past few years."

Hailed the Year Of The Cow, cattle took centre stage with 461 of the animals up for competition from a range of breeds.

A separate marquee has been dedicated to 50 Sussex specimens, known for their placid nature.

Deborah Barber, director of the SEAS, said: "The Sussex have such a wonderful deep reddish brown coat and of course produce the most succulent beef. The cattle entries have been steadily rising over the past few years and I believe this is a very positive indicator for the industry."

Children were able to get their hands on Daisy, a life-size model cow, to learn about milking.

A selection of sheep shearers, piglets, motorcyclists and wild birds were also on display to entertain the youngsters.

Ducks and chickens made a last-minute appearance after the Department for Food and Rural Affairs reversed its decision to ban the birds.

Organisers were told they could not be exhibited last Friday, following a bird flu scare in Wales last week. Officials finally agreed to lift the ban on Monday.

Some "absolutely fabulous" blooms were also on show, with a new variety of fuchsia named after the actress Joanna Lumley, exhibited in the horticultural marquee. It was only the second time the plant had been seen after it was launched by the Potash Nursery, of Stowmarket, at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Mike Clare, of Potash, said: "Joanna was really pleased. She'd heard the description but when she saw it in real life she was really over the moon and quite emotional."

Lottery winner David Funnel took a break from sheep shearing to tell The Argus he thought it was already a great year for the event. Mr Funnel won £1.8 million in the lottery and used the money to buy a farm in Hailsham. He said: "I've been coming for many years and I love it. It's got everything for everybody - farmers and the general public."