UNITE Rural life


n By Duncan Milligan


The Royal Norfolk Show – where livestock, wildlife and nature meet Attracting 100,000 visitors over two


days, the Royal Norfolk Show is one of the biggest agricultural shows in the country.


Farriers, blacksmiths, tree surgeons, boatbuilders, the science of conservation, amazing sculptors, extraordinary machinery, local artisans, crafts. There was fierce competition in the livestock competitions, the horse trials and the coaching competitions.


Yes, it would be easy to mock how some of it looked. Yes, some of those attending were clearly very well shod and dressed with a taste for Pimms and cocktails.


Yes, there were a few men in a clashing mix of green tweed jackets and brightly coloured trousers who occasionally made noises louder than the livestock. Yes, the stewards stood out in their bowler hats.


It’s a very different look. But is it that different from sports fans turning up in their team colours? Or golfers or tennis players or gym bunnies? Probably not.


“”


I did ask one of the judges what breed of sheep he was judging. “It’s a goat. Exactly which farming publication are you with?”


Duncan Milligan


The variety of different skills in farming and rural areas gives a flavour of the social and economic ecosystem essential to their future. Like any ecosytem, if you damage one part it can have damaging knock on effects on the system as a whole.


It’s not just no farms, no farmworkers, no food. That much should be obvious. It’s about how that interfaces with other elements of the rural social and economic ecosystem.


The array of skills are very physical. Whether you’re sculpting, boatbuilding or keeping control of a team of very heavy horse trailing a carriage.


The livestock are the stars of the show and kids in particular love the close interaction. The culmination of the cattle display was a real ‘Charge of the Beef Brigade’.


For those interested, Huggy Bear was the Prize Bull. What really comes through is the love of the livestock and that lots of people have a range of skills and jobs that make the countryside work.


Les Newman is an accountant. But instead of only counting numbers, he also counts his sheep. He breeds a relatively small number each year, but they are snapped up by local butchers and shops promoting local produce.


His sheep is in the judging ring and he tells me what the judges are looking for in this small, short hair breed. “They’re


34 uniteLANDWORKER Autumn 2023


looking for meat length, the leg joints and if they are walking properly.”


Yes, I know, I’m a born townie but I’m really getting into this now. Who knew there were so many breeds of sheep, with very different characteristics. Some with woolly legs and some without.


I did ask one of the judges what breed of sheep he was judging. “It’s a goat. Exactly which farming publication are you with?”


I now know the cattle on my nearby moorland – known locally as ‘the black ones with white waistcoats’ are in fact Belted Galloways. And the livestock and the animals need their humans to look after them. After all we’re a part of the eco system and we need skills.


The farrier competition was, naturally, hot work. The horses stood nonchalantly amid the noise and heat as if getting another fitting was little more than us walking into a shop and choosing a pair of trainers.


The farriers worked quickly between their small portable furnaces, the tools of their trade and lots of hammering, some of it


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40