The 2014 summer shows season kicks off this weekend with Thomastown and Newmarket-on-Fergus Agricultural Shows, along with Leap Horse and Pony Show in West Cork.

It is a wonderful time of the year when competitors prepare to showcase their exhibits – whether it’s horses, cattle, sheep, goats, poultry or dogs – and eagerly look forward to that all-important day out. Apart from the revenue and excitement they generate for the local community, summer shows form an integral part of the social calendar for farmers, rural dwellers, city and town dwellers, and for international visitors.

Five new events have been affiliated to the 2014 Irish Shows Association schedule (see pages 6-7). These include the Irish Pig Society show on 11 May; Flavours of Fingal, 28-29 June; Boyle Show, 24 August; Achill Island Show, 24 August, and Dualla Show, 31 August. Indeed, the ISA has 133 affiliated shows, of which 11 are based in Northern Ireland. The number and range of shows across the country certainly makes for a busy summer ahead.

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Aside from the agricultural shows, the 2014 World Sheep Shearing and Wool Handling championships will be staged in Gorey, Co Wexford. This prestigious event kicks off on 17 May next and runs right through to 25 May and it’s only the second time ever that Ireland has hosted the championships. Over 30,000 people are expected to visit the north Wexford town over the course of the event. This international event is preceded by Balmoral show, which takes place for a second year at its new premises in The Maze, Lisburn, on 14-16 May next.

Washing, grooming, halter training – the livestock exhibitors are getting their cattle ready for the 146th Balmoral show to be held at Balmoral Park at The Maze, near Lisburn from 14 to 16 May.

In the Beef Interbreed last year, William Smith of Oldcastle took the honours with his heifer, Millbrook Ginger Spice. Exhibitors from south of the border will be aiming to make their presence felt again this year.

But it’s not just about beef cattle; dairy cattle, at least 20 breeds of sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, horses and ponies, pigeons, rabbits, poultry and eggs are all part of the show. There are classes for young handlers with sheep, pigs and beef cattle, and a long list of commercial exhibitors with their trade stands.

Royal Ulster Agricultural Society chief Colin McDonald promotes Balmoral Show as a shop window for the agri-food sector. Farming and food are driving the local economy forward and more growth is in the pipeline given the targets set by the Agri-Food Strategy Board.

Food promotion is a growing part of the show and in the food pavilion, numerous local companies and artisan food producers are exhibiting under the banner “Grown here, not flown here”.

Beyond food and agriculture, there is something for all the family at the show.

There is a children’s farm, a funfair, a craft village, a show stage, a garden village, a vintage machinery display by Friends of Ferguson, and a major sheep shearing competition.

And you could be entertained by the eight-man stilt-walking noisy samba band just about anywhere in the showgrounds.

In the main arena, there are seven international and a series of national showjumping competitions interspersed with freestyle motorbike displays.

The arena hosts the parade of prizewinning cattle, this year led by The East Down Hunt, one of the oldest in Ireland, in existence since 1768. And for a final dose of excitement, the inter-hunt chase runs on the last evening at 6.30pm.