The Royal Show 2004 – a personal view.

What a great show for the Berkshire pigs !  On the Tuesday the joy of Berkshire pigs winning both the Supreme Show Championship and the coveted FLACK trophy for the best pair of pigs quickly cheered us all up after spending Monday complaining of the extremes of dust and floods.

To start at the beginning: Sunday 4^th July

Sharon Barnfield’s career as a show judge started here at this most prestigious show of the season.  A turn-out of 26 top quality pigs from an entry of 36 for 5 different exhibitors ranged from the huge first British Lassetter boar of Vicki Mills, to a little February gilt from Kevin & Chris at Glebe farm. 

Judging took place in glorious sunshine relieved by a cooling breeze.  Competition was very close in all classes – judging took 2 ½ hours. There was great deliberation over the sow class where Sharon had had to declare an interest in a sow that was being exhibited.  This meant that Vaughan Byrne (Berkshire club president from Northern Ireland) was called in to adjudicate.  Sharon & Vaughan both judged the class and, after a discussion, Glebe Farm’s ‘new’ 2 year old show sow Jobesmajor Royal Lustre 24 was awarded the honours. 

In the July gilt class there were several super gilts with no obvious faults, so apparently the size of the teats was a significant factor in the final placings.  Competition must have been close !

Of interest to me was the fact that some placings from earlier in the season were completely reversed.  So never think that the results of the first show sets the order for the season – pigs grow at different rates, different judges like different pigs, pigs can be just feeling ‘off’ on the day and not show themselves so well.  Also never expect all exhibitors to agree with the judge, this will never happen!

In the Berkshire breed championships, best female went to the Glebe Farm Sow, and best male went to Jo’s January boar - ‘the face, the body, the underline, the character – everything is right for a Berkshire’ said Sharon when explaining over the public system why he had won.  Owner Jo Wykes-Sneyd might say he had too much character!  He was quite difficult to show, but he was a beauty. He was really well grown even though he was only born on 30^th January.

Best Berkshire was therefore between the Sow and the 5 month old male, two very desirable pigs.  The sow won. She has only been to one show before, the Three Counties / Rare breed show at Malvern a week or so earlier.  Interestingly she was not taken to Bath & West due to concern over the loss of part of an ear.  Since her ear number is still evident she is quite eligible to participate.

Sunday p.m.  A terrific thunderstorm caused sudden torrential rain.  Thus it was no surprise that the pig pens flooded again.  People had already been saying that the building had flooded after rain in previous years.  Looking at the building construction it was obvious really, as the building is on a slope such that any overflow of the gutter along the top side just washes down through the pens.  The Berkshires were in the second line of pens so we caught much of the flooding. 

Lots of man-power tried to divert the floods to the aisles, by using straw wedges to channel the water, with some success.  The pigs were never going to come to any harm, but once they find that water under their straw their nose goes down and then you have a dirty pig for the rest of the show.  This is not what you want as an exhibitor – it just makes the job of keeping them clean so much harder work.  Plenty of extra straw was made available to top-up affected pens.  Subsequent constructive complaint to the Show Livestock Officer met deaf ears, as apparently the whole show ground may be re-organised in a few years time with the help of E.U. money.

Monday.  This was a day off for the Berkshires and their exhibitors, whilst the Modern breeds were judged.

Tuesday.  A sunny and windless day for the FLACK pairs championship and the Interbreed Supreme Championship. 

The FLACK trophy.  The competition for this prestigious and very desirable trophy is open to the best pair of pigs from each breed.  Vicki Mills nominated the litter siblings of Jo Wykes-Sneyd, the winning January boar and his litter sister, as the best pair to represent the Berkshire breed.  Because this little boar had been so troublesome to show on the Sunday, Steve Loveless (well respected Large White exhibitor) handled him in the ring for the Traditional Pairs heat. Steve produced a wonderful display, playing with & teasing the little boar, continually working on him to keep him forward and active and showing him at his best, hardly having to reprimand him at all.  A joy to watch.  Judge Ann Petch showed a great deal of interest, as she did with a superb mature Saddleback pair with great presence.  The reserve prize was awarded first, to some British Lops, and the winners were the little Berkshires. A great achievement especially when giving away so much age.

In the FLACK Final (Traditional v Modern) I’m sure Steve Loveless did not regret helping with the Berkshires in the heat, but his Large White pair were out of the places as Jo’s Berkshires won the Trophy with the other Traditional pair, the Lops, as reserve.

After so long in the hot ring the little boar was showing signs of heat stress.  He was hot and panting and Jo had just 20 minutes to cool her pig down prior to the InterBreed Boar Championship.

The InterBreed Boar Championship.  Cooling vinegar and wet towels were called for and the intensive care worked well enough for the little boar to come out again.  The judge was very understanding and offered all competitors the option of taking their pigs back into the shade after she had looked at them. Unfortunately this lovely little boar did not succeed - the aforementioned Steve Loveless was to win this Interbreed Championship with his Large White Boar. (I’m sure the web-site version of the result is wrong.)

The InterBreed Sow Championship.  I was watching this with fellow Berkshire exhibitors and a Berkshire show judge and we all thought that the Berkshire Sow stood out as perfection on four legs who moved beautifully and freely under Kevin’s guidance.  And she got it !  Chris Coe said she was ‘gobsmacked’ but absolutely delighted.

*** The InterBreed Supreme Championship.  ***

All breed Champions were on display for this, but this was purely a display for the public, the competition being between the Berkshire sow & the large white boar who were called out to parade together.  Kevin calmly showed her off, and was awarded the Supreme Championship.

***  Congratulations Kevin & Chris from all Berkshire competitors.  ***

The sow’s showing history is very brief:  she was born in April 2002 so was too young to show in that year.  She went to boar but initially failed to get in pig due to an infertile young boar.  By the time she was in pig she was ineligible for the 2003 show season (a pre July 2002 sow has to produce a litter within 12 weeks of a show).  Her first litter was August 2003.  Her second was February 2004, a gilt from that litter was here at the Royal.  Her third litter is due in September.  So 2004 is her first show season.

Wednesday

The BPA Pig of the Year heats were open to the best pig of each sex from each breed, born since 1^st July 2003, not already qualified AND prepared to travel to the Great Yorkshire show for the final.  Modern & Traditional breeds in separate heats, so 4 heats at every qualifying show.  Yet more Berkshire success as the traditional boar heat went to Glebe Farm’s October boar.

Commercial pairs class  This was for 2004 pigs to be judged on a Commercial basis. Both Berkshire pairs showed themselves well, Jo’s getting second and Sue’s fourth from an entry of 12 pairs.

Good things about the Royal show 2004

	‘Better Berkshire numbers this year is good news – we were in danger of our classes being amalgamated….’
	It is the most prestigious show of the calendar and some useful contacts and sales were made.
	The pig rings are good. 3 separate show rings plus a dedicated exercise ring which means that the competion rings don’t get fouled during the very necessary exercising of the pigs.
	The feature on Outdoor pigs is very good.  It was a display of different types of outdoor housing (a conventional arc and a straw bale house) one populated by some very appealing Large Black and Tamworth growers from Cranborne ,  Estate, the other populated by a Large White sow and her very young litter.  It was amusing to watch the attempts made to stop the sow digging deep holes.  As soon as one cratered area was fenced off with a few hurdles she just started again somewhere else.
	Some very experienced pig men were present, only too willing to share their years of experience.  For example feed quality was an interesting subject on one of the days.

Things that could be improved:

The floor.  ‘The floor is a disgrace’  ‘Nice new roof – pity about the floor’  ‘ they ought to have a competition amongst floor layers to create a new floor…’ ‘The dust is a health hazard’  ‘Wednesday was spent walking through dust curtains as the wind whipped up the dust in the aisles’.

Whatever the complaints, we all acknowledged that the Royal show will continue to be supported by pig breeders, simply because it is ‘The Royal’.

                                                                                                                        Sue Fildes