Over 12,000 people took in the sights and sounds of this year’s Fermanagh Show, including Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew and RUAS president Brian King.

The two-day celebration of farming and food marking the end of the agricultural show season in Northern Ireland is also the high water mark for a number of important livestock championships, a case in point being the Semex Dairy Cow of the Year Final at the Enniskillen venue.

In what turned out to be a close run thing, the accolade of champion was awarded to Crumlin Holstein breeder John Patterson with his second calver Ballyginniff Jasper Whiterose. The cow qualified for this week’s final at Ballymena Show back in May

Judging the class was John Gribbon, one of the top Holstein classifiers in the UK.

“I was taken by the excellent balance of the cow and her tremendous conformation,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.

“The overall quality of the entries for this year’s final was very high. All the breeders who took part should be well satisfied with the animals they brought to the show.”

Meanwhile the Inter-Breed Dairy Championship was won by Ivan and Louise Robinson from Ballygowan with their Jersey cow Ravara Junos Glamorous Skippy.

Competition in the beef rings was also keen with the Northern Ireland Shows’ Association Beef Cow Championship awarded to Fermanagh Limousin breeder Raymond Crawford. The winning animal was his excellent cow Curraghree Sensation.

The Supreme Beef Championship was won by Maghera Charolais breeder Gilbert Crawford with his excellent heifer Coolnaslee Countess.

Fermanagh Show traditionally features a cross section of Northern Ireland’s leading commercial beef breeders. This year the Law family from Kesh in Co Fermamagh won the Supreme Commercial Beef Championship. All of the main sheep breeds features at this week’s show and there was strong competition in all the classes. But yesterday will live long in the memory of Texel breeders J & H Foster from Castlederg who took home the Inter breed Championship with their tremendous ram.

Poultry again featured prominently. The overall championship went to James Elliott from Ballinamallard. “We have had a tremendous two days,” show secretary Heather Crawford said.