Come rain or shine, these local shows are vital part of the farming calendar

SHOW PREVIEW: As show season swings into action, Ewan Pate tells us why it is important that all involved just keep on keeping on

You don’t have to be a masochist to be the secretary of an agricultural show but it must certainly help. Being a born gambler would be another useful attribute.

Show chairmen and their committee stalwarts fall into the same category. Every year they put hope ahead of experience to organise the local shows around the Courier area, all 14 of them.

They know full well that, a bit like farming itself, they are taking a reckless chance on the weather. Even in summer the odds are not that great but still they persist and thank goodness for that.

An inside show would be a pretty sterile event. Far better to be outdoors watching the clouds scudding past wondering which one might decide to drop all its contents on the main ring just as the grand parade starts.

It happens, of course, but not always. Sometimes the sun shines from start to finish and everyone can enjoy the glories of a day in the fresh air.

I can recall one season where every show Saturday in the summer season was blessed with glorious weather, but only one.

For the others it has been a lottery but perhaps that is one of the great attractions in a world where everything else seems regulated to the point of boredom.

Even the spectators enjoy the unexpected variety thrown up by a Scottish summer. Will they be able to sit on the warm grass eating an ice cream while enjoying the spectacle?

Or will they suffer the agonies of being pulled out of the car park by an overexcited youth on a 350-horsepower tractor.

This opens up a range of possibilities from a mild splattering of mud and divots to taking your front bumper home in the boot.

I once saw the front of a horse lorry still chained to a crawler tractor while the rest of the vehicle sat unmoved in the mud 30 yards away.

But enough of the scary stuff. Let us imagine that the 2020 show season, from Fife Show at the end on May to Strathardle Gathering at the end of August, enjoys nothing but unbroken sunshine.

The livestock will be there in all its splendour and, no matter what the vegan lobby says, the public will be there to admire them.

These local shows retain the power to bring town and country together in the most beneficial way.

They really are a shop window and all the more effective for retaining their sense of tradition.

PR gurus for all their modern skills would struggle to promote the farming industry half as well.

All parts of the show contribute equally to the spectacle. The trade stands, the Womens Institute (I still, out of affection, call it “the Rural”), the Young Farmers and the vintage tractor enthusiasts all pitch in to make it a home-made fun day. Therein lies the charm of an agricultural show.

There is another side to it too. As a trustee of the rural charity RSABI I know only too well the stress which can affect country people.

Often it is unseen and kept private but it is there. A day out meeting friends and neighbours can sometimes be just the tonic that is needed. Well done to the shows for supplying it.

The message to the show secretaries and their committees has to be “keep gambling with the weather”. To the exhibitors it has to be “keep showing” and to the public, “keep attending”.

It is all well worth the effort.

Scenes from the Blair Castle International Horse Trials, main picture; Suffolk sheep leave the pen after judging at the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston in Edinburgh, right; and two-year-old Maisie Williams, of Methven, Perthshire, enjoys her ice cream in the heat a the Perth Show.