They say ‘manners maketh the man’ ... But in our world, ‘weather maketh the show’.
That’s what was obvious for my impressions of this year’s Royal Highland, with (mostly) ideal show weather contributing to that feeling of gaiety and friendship that epitomises to many what this fantastic event is all about.
I doubt whether the general public really get that, but what they do seem to appreciate is the hard work that many put in to making the show ‘happen’, especially in the livestock and equine showing world.
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You cannot fault this event for helping to engender that ‘good feeling factor’, and many around the livestock lines are glad that a previous diktat from the Big Hoose that the late-night parties around the stock lines would be curtailed looks to have been largely dissipated.
In my mind, that is down to a greater awareness brought on by that threat, meaning that there has to be some self-policing and responsibility placed on the revellers themselves. That’s a good thing.
From a professional point of view and for many of the stand-holders that had to put up with it, continuing problems with the once much-vaunted IT system that had been installed some years ago – at much expense – does not appear to have worked well enough. Given RHASS’ tacit intention of heading towards a totally ticketless entry system, an IT failure or loss of mobile phone connection (or both as the case was) would spell disaster.
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On top of that, traders at the event have been encouraged to go down the cashless route and many will have suffered loss due to downtime of the systems. I can imagine when the ‘greeting meeting’ happens, there will be a few traders knocking down the door to obtain refunds on the considerable cost of their stand spaces etc.
No point in paying hard cash for something that does not provide a return on that investment due to failures on promised IT availability.
Having worked away for many years on the premise that more people through the gate equalled more money for the show’s finances, I’m now a bit more ambivalent towards that. For stand-holders, it’s not so much all about numbers, but all about the quality of the footfall that passes their threshold.
Due to having a bit more time on my hands, I was able to see more of the show this year and you cannot help by being impressed, though, by some of the changes which have been made to encourage that footfall to visit more areas of the show and some of the stands that I passed, even early in the morning, looked to have been well patronised by the kind of people that’s needed to justify what is, after all, a pretty hefty investment.
To me, things looked to be pretty busy as you moved about amongst the trade areas. For myself, I had an added role this year when judging the new ‘milk’ competition. This had met with some derision from some departments in my life, most obviously from ‘management’, but I have to say that it turned out to be a revelation.
Myself and my fellow judge had before us 33 different samples to taste, mostly in the whole milk section. It was quite an eye opener to find that there was a wide variation in the taste and consistency between the entries.
Hats off to those artisan dairies producing unique products for an ever-discerning marketplace – they deserve to take a small slice of the market from the big dairies that cater for the mass market.
This was my second judging stint at a ‘Royal’ this year. I was honoured and fortunate enough to place the Champion of Champions at the recent Balmoral Show, administered by the estimable people behind the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society. Way out in front for me was a cracking Limousin heifer, but I had to say that had there been a blue and white award, then it would have gone to the rabbit! ... Which either proves I know nothing, or this is what showing is all about!
But then, few other people saw the rabbit!
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