Entries open for East of England Smithfield Festival 2012 (From Smallholder)

Entries open for East of England Smithfield Festival 2012

1:13pm Monday 3rd September 2012 in News

 The organisers are delighted to announce that livestock schedules for this year's East of England Smithfield Festival are now available and entries for the event are being accepted.

This year’s East of England Smithfield Fesitval, which once again has Newark livestock Market as the major cattle sponsor and Farmers Guardian as its media partner, aims to build on last year’s event, with the introduction of a number of new features. It will take place at Peterborough on 30 November and 1 December 2012.

Livestock classes will be largely the same as last year, with a number of modifications, including the introduction of several new calf shows for beef breeds and the transfer of the Duke of Norfolk trophy from the prime cattle section to the calf section.

The popular lamb carcass section will also return this year, along with untrimmed sheep classes, both of which should encourage those producers without trimming skills to enter lambs for the event, said event manager Kerry Buttriss.

"These classes offer every sheep producer the chance to exhibit whether they can trim or not and are an excellent opportunity for sheep farmers to showcase the quality of their stock at the leading national primestock show."

Two English judges will take on the major judging roles at this year's event, with Matlock, Derbyshire-based Jonathan Maycock adjudicating in the prime cattle and baby-beef classes and Scarborough, Yorkshire-based Anthony Glaves sorting through the sheep entries.

Other judges confirmed for this year’s show include Cornwall-based Gayle Bersey who will judge the final of the Young Stockperson of the Year competition and Dan Bull, Lambourne, who will have the task of adjudicating in this year’s College Challenge.

Mrs Buttriss said initial interest in the livestock sections was strong with a number of potential new exhibitors having already requested schedules for the event. “We are looking forward to building on the success of last year’s inaugural event and the early indications are that both livestock and trade stand numbers will be up on 2011.

“We’ve already received confirmed bookings from a number of major trade exhibitors and have had many other enquiries too, including from potential sponsors.”

All enquiries about the event, including applications for trade stands, should be made through the East of England Agricultural Society’s Livestock office.

Livestock entries close on Monday 8 October for all sections.