Attractive prices expected at Royal Welsh Winter Fair (From Smallholder)

Attractive prices expected at Royal Welsh Winter Fair

10:50am Sunday 21st October 2012 in News

Pedigree and commercial beef producers are expected to achieve attractive prices for prime stock offered for sale at this year’s Royal Welsh Winter Fair to be staged on the showground at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, next month.

If current prices are maintained until the Fair on November 26 and 27 a lively trade will provide good returns for quality animals going under the hammer at the sale on the second day of the Fair which is always a highlight of the event. The top price achieved for the supreme champion stands at £12,500 paid for a Limousin cross steer in 2005.

This will be the 23rd Winter Fair at Llanelwedd and 185 classes and special awards have been scheduled and thousands of pounds in prize money will be available to competitors including exhibitors in the horse section in which an entry numbering hundreds of horses and ponies will line up for judging before an audience of enthusiasts from the UK and overseas.

As well as its commercial attraction to farmers the Fair, which also stages a poultry show with around 1000 entries, has hundreds of trade stands and many shopping arcades with a wide variety of affordable items from which to choose and buy.

Many visitors go to the Fair for their Christmas shopping and last year it attracted a record attendance of nearly 28,000 confirming its popularity as a favourite fixture for urban visitors as well as farming families and those who live and work in the countryside.

The Fair also showcases some of the best food and drink produced in Wales which can be sampled and purchased in the showground’s £1.7m Food Hall, one of the many modern buildings on the permanent site which enable the major attractions to be staged under cover making the Fair impervious to winter weather.

The two-day programme includes a produce and handicraft section, a floral art display and competitions for children and this year’s Fair will see an expansion of facilities for visitors with the use of the Members Centre and Green Pavilion and the surrounding area on the showground. The Centre will host a new exciting artisan ice cream competition, cookery demonstrations with Welsh chef Dudley Newbury, and lamb cutting, ice cream and semifredo demonstrations.

The Members Centre will also feature a 20 feet high Christmas tree which will be decorated with produce from throughout Wales and there will be an area with tables and chairs providing a place for visitors to sit and enjoy the experience.

There will also be an outdoor Christmas Farmers Market surrounding the Centre involving producers from most areas of Wales and a competition for the best Christmas-themed stand will give this new addition to the Fair a truly festive flavour.