PICTURES and RESULTS: Ballymoney Show

The many people gathered around the show rings were provided with a unique opportunity to view a selection of Northern Ireland's elite pedigree livestock taking part in a series of very closely fought competition classes.

Ballymena Holstein breeder Wallace Gregg won the Inter Breed Dairy Championship with his impressive second calver Frosses Goldwyn Primrose.

A home bred cow, she is currently giving 57 litres of milk per day.

The Beef Inter Breed Championship was won by Maghera breeder Gilbert Crawford with his excellent heifer Coolnaslee Countess. Sired by the renowned bull Allanfold Super Scot, she is currently in calf to Goldie's Carnival.

The Sheep Inter Breed title was won by Carnlough breeder Michelle Wright with an excellent Blue Faced Leicester ewe.

Newly-elected Ulster Farmers' Union president John Thompson attended the show on Saturday. He told the News Letter that the event was a tremendous day out for all the family.

"The excellent weather has helped to attract very large crowds this year," he added.

"Ballymoney Show always attracts an excellent turnout of pedigree cattle and sheep. And this year was no different.

"The show is unique in being organised by members of three local Young Farmers' Clubs: Finvoy, Kilraughts and Moycraig.

"And it's wholly down to their tremendous efforts that we have been able to enjoy such an excellent show for so many years."

However some sheep producers involved with the show were furious at what they regarded as the totally unacceptable way in which department of agriculture staff interpreted the new EID (Electronic Identification) tagging regulations.

They claim the difficulties which ensued resulted in an almost 30 per cent drop-off in the number of sheep taking part in the competition classes scheduled for Saturday past.

"I am absolutely livid at what happened," leading pedigree beef and sheep breeder Victor Chestnutt told the News Letter.

"My son David manages the sheep and we knew from the middle of last week that our order of EID tags would not arrive in time for the show.

"I then rang the department of agriculture and asked if they would agree to recognise the fact that so many flock owners are having to wait for weeks to receive their new tag orders.

"I was told this could not be done, so we decided to leave the sheep at home this year.

"But I know that sheep producers coming to the event were met by department officials as they arrived and were advised that flockowners entering the showgrounds with sheep not properly tagged ran the risk of losing a proportion of their single farm payment.

"As a result of this a number of flockowners simply turned and headed back home."

The Bushmills farmer went on to confirm that he had tried to order the new EID tags back in February but was told then that no manufacturer had, at that stage, been licensed to carry out the printing process.

"Sheep producers are not responsible for the current delays in getting the new tags printed," Victor Chesnutt continued.

"Yet many were left with no option but to either stay away from Ballymoney Show today or, having arrived at the gates, make the decision to turn directly for home because of the total inflexibility shown by department of agriculture staff.

"The reality is that even prior to the introduction of the new EID regulations, adult pedigree sheep were possibly the most comprehensively tagged and documented category of livestock in Northern Ireland. My ewes are already tagged to meet the criteria of the department's previous identification system plus they carry a micro chipped bolus to comply with the Scrapie regulations."