Rumours of the agricultural show’s demise have been greatly exaggerated

A cow wears rosettes during the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate on 14 July 2010 (REUTERS/Nigel Roddis )

After the hard-to-explain disappearance of The Royal Show (staged from 1839 to 2009), it was easy to be alarmed about the state of the UK’s agricultural industry.

Don’t concrete over the remaining countryside yet. The UK’s two other great farming events promise hearty singing at this year’s harvest festivals.

The Great Yorkshire Show ended last week with near-record attendance figures (more than 131,000 over the three days). The Show Director, Bill Cowling, said: “Looking at the farming industry as a whole, there’s certainly a growing confidence, and as one of the UK’s top three agricultural shows, it is our responsibility to help foster that confidence.”

And this week’s Royal Welsh Show (with more than 52,000 visitors on the first day alone) proved so successful that exhibitors were ask to cut back on the numbers of livestock entries they were taking.

All of which makes the end of the Royal Show ever more puzzling. And the future direction of its organisers, The Royal Agricultural Society of England, perhaps more confounding still.

Farming is often a lonely business; that makes these gregarious gatherings all the more enervating as well as an important opportunity to exchange information and ideas.  And it is true that Harrogate and Llanelwedd may have gained in part through Stoneleigh’s demise, but why should the show of shows have disappeared?

What a shame that a county show now has to fly the flag for England.

* After demise of the Royal Show, RASE falls at first hurdle

Recent Posts on Notebook - A selection of Independent views -

• Caught & Social: Cast of ‘The Artist’ party all night
• Today from i: Awful gift hall of shame
• HIV orphans in Thailand prepare for the future
• Caught & Social: Stars hungry for more after the Bafta hors d’oeuvres
• Time for a reality check on the Sri Lankan civil war