Royal Welsh preview: Livestock entries good, despite crunch

Ben Williams, the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society’s livestock officer claims farming’s problems have had no impact on entries.

“We are ecstatic there are record entries for sheep and pig classes and for several breeds in the horse section,” he says.

Almost 3000 sheep representing 44 breeds will compete for show ring honours, a total nearly 600 up on 2008, with 291 Texels topping the list. There will also be 231 Badger Faced Welsh Mountains, 141 Black Welsh Mountains, 198 Charollais and 117 Ryelands penned at the event.

Among the other numerically strong breeds are Beltex, with 114 head competing, and Bluefaced Leicester with 107 entries.

The lamb carcass competition has also attracted 57 entries.

Mr Williams reports that cattle entries have increased by 223 to 942, with 192 extra beef cattle and 31 more dairy animals expected to parade.

There will be 18 beef breeds on show, including 159 British Limousins, while 59 of the 138 dairy breed entries are Holsteins.

Of the record 139 pig entries 50 are from the Welsh breed and 38 are British Saddlebacks.

See more