Video: Nidderdale Show gets its day in the sun

Thankfully for the 20,000 or so visitors to Bewerley Park in Pateley Bridge, the recent warmth held and the downpours that dogged last year’s event were consigned to memory.

Traditionally seen as the finale to the Yorkshire show season, Nidderdale Show is a last chance for a “chin wag” between farmers, as the show’s president John Fort put it.

Mr Fort said: “We’re having a marvellous turnout. The weather has been wonderful and has obviously helped us enormously and we can see that the field is in tip-top condition.

“It’s the ambience of the place that makes the show so popular, and the beauty of the area as well, plus the fact that it’s right in the town.

“I think you have to go a great long way to find a better showground and the livestock entries are absolutely magnificent.”

Some £23,000 was handed out in prize money.

In the cattle rings, JA Stoney & Son has taken shows by storm with Limousin cross Prince and the family again claimed victory in the Commercial Beef section, but were narrowly pipped by Kate McNeil, of Stubbs Walden near Selby, who paraded five-year-old British Blonde, Ark Dora, with five-month-old calf Katem Ikon in the battle for the Supreme Beef title.

Mrs McNeil’s father Ken Jackson, who farms alongside his daughter, said: “Kate is starting on her own. This is her foundation cow. It was my 69th birthday yesterday so to win is a nice present.”

IRG Collins & Partners, of Dewsbury, took the Supreme Dairy title with a five-year-old shorthorn which produces more than 50 litres a day.

Acaster Selby farmer Charlotte Holding’s large white sow was awarded best pig, while Francis Caton, of Weston near Otley, won the Sheep Interbreed Championship with a bluefaced Leicester, having decided to enter at the last minute.

Away from the pens, crowds enjoyed the Ye Olde Redtail Falconry Display and a parade by Blackmins International Miniature Horses.