It will be ladies day at this year’s Royal Northern Spring Show at Thainstone on Wednesday with an all-female line-up of judges in honour of the show’s first-ever lady president.
And it will be crowned by the presence of the Princess Royal who will be making her fifth visit to the show since being appointed patron of Royal Northern Agricultural Society, organisers of the show, in 1995.
“We are delighted Her Royal Highness will be joining us again for the show,” said Janelle Anderson, who was elected the society’s first lady president last year. “As always, she will be warmly welcomed by exhibitors, standholders and spectators who have greatly appreciated her attendance at previous shows.”
Her visit this year will be shorter because of other engagements but she will be making a whirlwind-tour of the show and it is hoped she will be able to present trophies to some of the winning exhibitors and to two recipients of Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland long-service medals.
As on previous visits, the society will be making a handsome donation to one of the princess royal’s favourite charities, the Princess Royal Trust for Carers.
The show caps a busy year for Ms Anderson who as well as president of the society, is vice-chairwoman of the North East of Scotland Farm Management Association and secretary of the North East Aberdeen-Angus Club. Her full-time job is with the grain marketing and storage co-op Aberdeen Grain at Newmachar, and she also finds time to help on the family farm of Easterton, Old Rayne.
Although honoured to be elected president, it wasn’t her own idea to have only lady judges at this year’s show although she is delighted with the board’s decision.
“It was proposed at a board meeting and everyone thought it would be a good idea,” said Ms Anderson. “It’s a novel approach and we have a terrific line-up of competent ladies to judge the various classes.”
Entries for the livestock classes include 60 exhibition cattle, 55 carcase cattle, 31 pairs of hoggs and 20 groups of three for the breeding sheep class. Aberdeen and Northern Marts has 100 entries for its spring bull sale which is held as part of the show.
The society’s secretary and show organiser, Alison Argo, also reports that trade stand space is completely sold out with 126 stands, including 17 new exhibitors coming to the show for the first time.
Mrs Argo said: “The interest is tremendous which is perhaps surprising given all the uncertainty in the industry at the present time.
“However, when times are tougher, that’s maybe when the trade has to do even more to promote its products and services to its prospective customers.”
Tractor dealers will be out in force following the decision of Massey Ferguson to move their franchise to AM Phillip Agritech which has had a knock-on effect throughout the trade with a succession of new dealership and franchise arrangements. All will be at the spring show to demonstrate their new wares.
And hopefully farmers will have more money to spend with incomes having increased, albeit marginally, particularly since the Brexit announcement last June, the late receipt last year of the 2015 support payments and the loan facility put in place by the Scottish Government in anticipation of the 2016 payments being late again this year.
Mrs Argo said: “Our trade stand exhibitors always say that the spring show is an event where they do business and they can be assured of a large attendance of farmers keen to see what’s on offer.”
Main sponsor of the show is Stewart Trailers of Daviot, which is again supporting the exhibition cattle section – one of the main attractions of the show – while solicitors Turcan Connell is the main sponsor of the horse and pony section for the first time.
Other main sponsors include Grampian Steel Services, Oldmeldrum (carcase cattle) and Aberdeen accountants Williamson and Dunn (show and sale of bulls), while Bruce Stevenson Insurance Brokers will be supporting the show generally as well as hosting the reception for the presentation of show trophies on May 10.
Bruce Stevenson will have well-known endurance athlete and broadcaster Mark Beaumont on their stand in the morning which should be a great attraction for the hundreds of primary school children who will be visiting the show on a schools’ visit programme organised by the Royal Northern Countryside Initiative.
The show could not take place without the support of ANM Group which provides the excellent facilities for the event and whose mart staff play a key role in the organisation, alongside all members of the society’s board and other voluntary helpers.
It is expected that the show of exhibition cattle, to be judged by Lin Pidsley, who is travelling all the way from Devon to officiate, will see around 70 cattle paraded while the show and sale of bulls, to be judged by Caithness-born Tracey Gunn, who with husband, Dave, manages the well-known Balthayock Charolais herd, near Perth, has attracted more than 100 entries.
Judging will start with the bulls at 8am, followed by the sale at noon, while the exhibition cattle will start judging at 11am, followed by the sale at 2.30pm.
ANM auctions operations manager Alan Hutcheon said: “We are delighted with the strong entry of stock for this prestigious spring event which gives buyers the opportunity to purchase top quality pedigree livestock.
“Exhibition cattle suitable for future summer and winter competitions will also be on offer for those interested. We invite everyone to come along to Thainstone Centre to see some of the best livestock that the north and north-east has to offer.”
