The Great Yorkshire Show: From politics to pigeons the country's largest agricultural show has it all

Visitors donned raincoats, ponchos and umbrellas and Charles Mills, Show Director for the last nine years with this being his last one, said “the show will go on”.

Among major conferences opening the show were from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and the Country Land and Business Association (CLA).With a new Government, now is the time to pitch priorities, and the NFU was among those to firmly set out its stall.

Farming and the sector contributes £2.4bn to Yorkshire’s economy with rural tourism providing more than 30,000 jobs countywide, the NFU said.

President Tom Bradshaw, in conference with Grow Yorkshire chair Madge Moore, and Farm Stay regional director for the region, said we are at a “pivotal point” in politics.

Agriculture is “hugely valuable” to Yorkshire’s economy, he said, yet is too often “overlooked and taken for granted”.

It was crucial that this value was recognised and understood, he added, if the Government is to align its political actions with economic growth.

Mr Bradshaw spoke of challenges with transition payments for upland farmers, which he raised with the Secretary of State in a meeting on Monday, and welcomed a commitment in Labour’s manifesto to build on food security. Urgent clarity is needed on budgets for agriculture, he added, to drive the confidence the industry needs.

Day two of the show, Wednesday, was the first event outside London that Steve Reed, the new Secretary of State for Defra, has attended since he was appointed as part of Keir Starmer’s Cabinet following the General Election result last week.

It was also the first time that the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, had visited the show.

As the showground opened its gates, Mr Reed was already in a meeting with Victoria Vyvyan, president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) before visiting the NFU stand to meet with NFU Vice President Rachel Hallos.

Then it was the turn of the media and when asked by The Yorkshire Post if he had set a rural budget he said an announcement will be made in due course.

Mr Reed said: “We are fully committed to ELMs (environmental land management schemes), we have said that all the way through the campaign, that remains the case. I want to support the aspects that are working well and will make an announcement in due course.

"My job will be, through the spending review, to fight for the sector and that 100 per cent is what I will do. I want that sector to succeed.”

When pressed on a budget being the key factor behind whether pledges such as improving food security and fairer prices for farmers are going to materialise he added: “We are looking at how we can help it to work (ELMs) but we do that by listening to the sector, not sitting in an office in London telling people what will happen to them.”

Earlier, Mr Reed told a gathering of CLA members: “During the campaign I spoke to farmers and landowners up and down the country, they made it clear to me how difficult things had been.

"It will take years to reverse the damage but I am confident, despite the scale of the challenge that we face, that we can do it.”

He stated he would cut energy bills for farmers, create a new publicly owned company to harness British power, speed up planning departments and cut rural crime with the first cross government rural crime strategy focusing on agricultural theft, fly-tipping and livestock worrying and increasing police patrols in rural areas.

The Archbishop of York joined leaders with prayers and while it was his first Great Yorkshire Show, he told The Yorkshire Post, it was by no means his last.

It was a celebration of farming, and of rural communities, he said, but also a chance to share, within towns and cities, what country life is all about. And just why it matters.

"We say in the Lord's Prayer 'give us our daily bread' - I do wonder whether many of us today know where our daily bread comes from?", he pondered.

"Do we know what goes into making of it? If it wasn't for our farmers and our rural communities we would not have 'daily bread'." The Archbishop, speaking on the importance of food security and easing food miles, also acknowledged some of the challenges that farming families faced.

"There can be, in rural and farming societies, a lot of isolation, there is a lot of often hidden rural poverty," he said. "If crops fail, that can result in real hardship.

"The rain that we have had this year in particular has caused real difficulties. Nevertheless, farmers are tenacious and resilient people."

And there were a great many examples to celebrate, he said, as events such as the Great Yorkshire Show demonstrate this resilient spirit.

They also show the strength of potential that is just waiting to grow.

"I'm very hopeful that our new Government will properly invest in and support our rural communities," he added.

"The important thing is we are one nation."

Meanwhile, tourism bosses heralded the strength of the industry in North Yorkshire after the first county-wide study of visitor economy recorded 31m people spending a collective £4bn last year.

Visit North Yorkshire, set up following the collapse of Welcome to Yorkshire, revealed the huge figures at the Great Yorkshire Show while admitting the tourism industry continues to face significant challenges.

The North Yorkshire Council-run body is aiming to capitalise on the county’s brand, using well-known destinations as anchors to allow visitors to explore the more of the county.

Gemma Rio, the authority’s head of tourism said among the “both pleasing and surprising” findings of the study had been that the average length of stay for visitors in North Yorkshire was four nights, while the average across the UK was 2.8 nights.

She said: “We are significantly ahead of the average because people like to visit multiple destinations in North Yorkshire, so visitors do extend their stay. That’s really important because overnight stays are where the money is for our visitor economy.

“In North Yorkshire we are feeling very positive, these figures show the visitor economy performed very well in 2023 and gives us confidence as we head into the peak season.”

The report also found tourism in county supported 38,486 jobs, through direct and indirect jobs, making up 13 per cent of employment in the county.

While the tourism body believes having an understanding of the value of the visitor economy will be key for its future visitor promotion work, the county’s tourism industry is still facing twin challenges from the cost of living crisis and staff recruitment.

While many of the poultry classes had been affected by bird flu outbreaks, those running the pigeon contest on Wednesday boasted a record entry of 560, with visitors expressing astonishment at the variety of pigeons on display.

Thursday saw the best of the best when it comes to livestock with the presentation of the esteemed Supreme Champion awards before a great spectacle in the Main Ring with a cattle parade as grand as it was imposing.

Despite Tuesday’s wet start, the rest of the week, if not quite bathed in summer sunshine, did stay dry much to the delight of show organisers.

To Mr Mills, reflecting so far, there's "nothing quite like" the showfield on a dry day. Tuesday may have hailed a wet start but he praised facilities' teams as the ground held."Seeing people picnicking on the President's Lawn, that's what it's all about," he said. "And so many families, that's what delights me. I used to come, as a boy, with my parents.

"If the wider public can take away even a little bit more knowledge about farming and rural life, then it's been a success.”

And the family atmosphere was ever present as the Great Yorkshire Show for many is one of few occasions they get to leave the farm for a break.

Millie Horsley, of York, was closely watching the competition in the pigs ring.The family, with five generations now having exhibited at the show, has shown 13 pigs, across rare breeds, taking champions with Berkshires, Middle Whites and Large Black Boar."I've been coming since I've been able to walk," she said. "We call this our holiday, we don't go abroad. It's just nice to catch up with people we don't see for a year."