Thousands of entries in for Royal Highland Show

This year marks the 178th annual Royal Highland Show which is set to take place at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston from Thursday 21 to Sunday 24 June.

With well over 5,000 entries recorded across all sections of the show, sheep entries will once again have a strong presence with a total of 2,029 sheep set to compete – making this the second largest number of entries for a decade.

This year the Scottish Blackface Sheep was selected as the face of the Royal Highland Show with the 2017 Blackface Sheep Champion, Emily, chosen to be the focus of this year’s campaign.

Emily has been bred by Lanarkshire sheep farmer, Malcolm Coubrough, who said: “Much of the Scottish landscape has been shaped by native breeds, such as the Blackface sheep, which have grazed the geography of Scotland for centuries.

“They have also provided an income for generations of farmers who have relied on the hardiness of these breeds to generate a living – which has been vital for the economy of rural Scotland. There is no better showcase to see this magnificent animal than at the Royal Highland Show.”

Livestock and equine entries this year

Shorthorns will account for most of the entries this year with a total of 104 set to appear, this is up from 88 entries last year. There are a total of 103 Simmental and 76 Charolais entries.

The show will also feature the highest number of commercial cattle in the past decade with 93 animals set to compete – an increase of almost 25% from last year.

There are a total of 109 entries for the dairy section with this year’s Queen’s Cup taking place in the dairy class.

Out of the total 2,029 sheep set to attend the show, the Texel section leads the way with 182 entries, closely followed by the Beltex with 177. Suffolks, Ryelands and Rogues are all set to have their highest number of entries in 10 years with 110, 82, and 39 respectively.

This year the goat classes are showing a 10-year high with 39 entries and 1,665 entries are in for the light horse section – with the Horse of the Year Show qualifying Mountain and Moorland Under Saddle section dominating again this year with 197. The Heavy Horse section will feature 392 entries, with Highland females leading the way with 94 and Shetland females sitting at 84.

Record entries can again be seen in the Welsh C and Welsh D classes with 43 and 59 respectively.

Year of Young People

To help celebrate Scotland’s Year of Young People, there has been a strong focus on getting young people involved with this year’s show.

A total 56 entries have been received for the Young Handler competition and helping to judge the Young Handler classes will be 21 year old Laura Green from Morayshire, who will take on her role as the show’s youngest judge this year.

Also taking on the role as judges this year are East Lothian hospitality students Georgio Michalakis and Mia Wilkie from Preston Lodge High School who will choose the winning ice cream in the Ice Cream Championships which are set to take place at 9am on Thursday 21 June.

More than 30,000 children and 300 school groups are expected to discover more about food, farming and rural life at the show.

The Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) who will be running the majority of education activities throughout the four days, are focusing their theme this year on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

What’s on?

Here are just some of the events taking place over the four days, further details can be found at www.royalhighlandshow.org: