Great Yorkshire ready for the mantle of being number one

But many will now be looking to the summer, as tickets for the Great Yorkshire Show go on sale.

March 1 will see the box office open for this summer's farming showcase spectacular, as the show takes on the mantle of being England's biggest agricultural show.

The Royal Show, previously the country's largest agricultural event, will not be taking place this year after organisers decided to mothball the event.

Now faced with the responsibility of running the biggest farming event in the country, honorary show director Bill Cowling said that the Royal Show's absence from this year's calendar would invariably lead to this year's Great Yorkshire Show taking on a new light.

Mr Cowling told the Yorkshire Post: "It will have an affect on us, particularly in the farming livestock sections for cattle, sheep and pigs. Perhaps some of the other sections less so.

"We have had increased interest, including from some of the national companies and organisations who have majored on the Royal Show.

" We are in an ideal position to take advantage as we are in the same timescale.

"The pressure will be still be on us regarding capacity to house cattle, sheep and pigs but in some respects this is a nice position to be in. The advice we would give to people is to make sure they enter early." Increasing interest has led the show to increase capacity for livestock entrances by around 100 a head, with the space being created by the moving of the Simmental breeds to a special marquee to reflect the 40th anniversary of the cattle

However, despite the increased interest Mr Cowling said there was a conscious effort among the organisers not to be too ambitious following the demise of the Royal Show.

"The last thing we want to do is that. We are very much on normal timescales for where we should be and in some places are ahead of time.

"We are fairly confident that we can legitimately claim to be the leading agricultural show in England.

"The agricultural content will remain high and as high as any other show. Any changes we do make will be relatively minor – we are always trying to improve the offering that we put on with the classes etc anyway. But we won't be jumping in with any major changes in that respect.

"We expect to be even better than we were already. We have written to all of the main opinion formers, heads of Government departments and large organisations and we are happy to say that a great number are already coming and we are confident of an even better turnout.

"Standards should continue to improve."

He added how pleased he was that despite the country's economic woes, interest in trade stands remained high.