This year’s Fermanagh County show on Tuesday and Wednesday next, August 2 and 3 will be a celebration of food, technology and innovation in farming and associated rural industries.

This year’s Show will have several firsts; a new Show Co-ordinator, Morgan Blain-Crehan and the headline event at this year’s show will be the inaugural Suckler Cow Classic Competition to identify the best commercial suckler cow unit and the Breeding Heifer Derby, the entries of both competitions shown straight from the field without the need for halter training.

Also included in the Show programme over the two days will be the full range of classes in the Home Industries and schoolchildren’s sections and including the ever-popular Dog Show and Food Hall as well as a large number of trade exhibits. Schoolchildren across the county have already submitted 2500 entries for this year’s show. 

The popular photography, needlework, craft, home produce such as fruit and vegetable classes and the iconic Food Hall will highlight the high quality of produce available locally. 

Poultry classes will also be held with a view to reintroduce all livestock next year. 

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic delaying organisational changes within Fermanagh Farming Society, there will not be any pedigree cattle or sheep classes at this year’s Show but the new Suckler Cow Classic and Breeding Heifer Derby will attract plenty of interest from the farming community.

The future of the beef industry will be based on many factors, but these also include efficiency and sustainability within cattle herds.

With the assistance of local DAERA advisers, Fermanagh County Show organisers have identified local farmers from across Fermanagh and neighbouring counties who promote good farming practices, manage herds of functional self-sustaining suckler cows, breeding calves suitable for the present commercial market and who retain functional fit for purpose replacement heifers. 

The finalists have already been judged and these will be invited to the Show on Wednesday where they will be judged by Mr. David Wright, Northern Editor of the Irish Farmers’ Journal. Prizewinners will share in a £2,250 prize fund. 

This is a pilot programme in 2022 but over the next two years, technical data will be included in the judging criterion. The aim is to build on the work farmers are doing to improve their enterprises and in future include key referential indicators which assist farmers in identifying what it takes to become more efficient and profitable. 

Trophies will be awarded to the winners of the classes in addition to prizemoney.

The Show will provide plenty of information to the farming public as well as consumers on ways to overcome rising costs and ever-changing standards of living. 

This year parking will be available on both days at the Showgrounds at the Ulster Farmers’ Mart Exhibition Centre.

This will be the first Fermanagh County Show for the new Show Co-ordinator, Morgan, to help plan and organise. As a recent graduate of Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, she has helped to organise large cultural festivals and says she is looking forward to kickstarting the local show scene after a three-year hiatus, with the goal of promoting the western rural region of Northern Ireland.

Admission is £6 for adults at the gate on either day of the Show but tickets purchases prior to the Show will cost just £5.