Preparations are well underway for this year’s Southern District Agricultural Show.

There is huge amount to be done behind the scenes before the first visitor sets foot on the show’s new site at Orrisdale Farm near Ballasalla tomorrow morning (Saturday).

The Kermode family, who are the hosts, have been busy getting the farm ready for the influx of animals, vehicles, competitors and up to 12,000 visitors.

Tom Kermode has been out mowing the six fields the show will occupy, for the cattle and horse sections, the main ring and the car park.

Tom says: ’We’ve done quite a lot of hedge work, tidying them up, we’ve put in a couple of new gateways for the show rings and we’ve done some fencing.

’We’ve also dug a couple of new laneways and will be stoning them in, to make access easier if it’s wet or if we have to get an ambulance onto the show field.’

Show secretary Sarah Comish has been organising the entries, trade stands and printing of the programmes, along with Zoe Hampton who will be taking over the role from her for next year (see opposite page).

Sarah reports that, although the light horse and heavy horses entries have remained ’fairly robust’, entries in the livestock section are slightly down.

She believes there are a variety of reasons for that, one of them being very much to do with the show missing a year in 2020, which means people might not have started handling cattle last year, to start getting them ready to bring this year

She says: ’I think that once we get back into the rhythm of showing they’ll come back. I think people do it because they love doing it.

’Showing is a bit of a passion. You’ve got to love it because it takes so much time and it’s a lot of preparation.

’We’re always trying to encourage people to exhibit and what’s been nice this year is that, although the numbers aren’t as big as they normally are, we’ve got some different exhibitors coming, we’ve got plenty of young handlers and plenty of people that are taking an interest in showing.’

Sarah also highlighted the work of the many volunteers who help to set up and run the show on the day. Everyone from Brenda Skillicorn, who runs the catering in the refreshments tent and the president’s tent, to the people who come and put the sheep pens up.

’They just come and they do it and they don’t expect any credit for doing it and yet they’re there every year,’ says Sarah.

’Without them we’d be really stuck.’

What is vital on the day of the show is role carried out by the stewards.

Sarah says: ’Having plenty of experienced stewards is what you really need, especially when you’re in the livestock section and the horse section. It’s really good at the moment because the stewards that we’ve got are very experienced and they’re also bringing younger people in so that they can learn as they go.’

The stewards perform a number of functions. There are the judges’ stewards who look after the judges, making sure that the right people are called into line during the judging process and that all the results are recorded. Then there are the stewards who make sure people get to their classes. They are also there to help out in the event of an animal panicking or generally misbehaving.

Sarah says: ’It’s very rare there’s an incident where the stewards have to step in, because people will only bring animals onto the show field if they know they’re going to behave themselves, they’ve been training them for months. But, if there is an incident, the stewards know exactly what to do and how to handle that animal and they can help load them up and take them away if they need to.

’That is really rare but that’s why they are so important.’

The show takes place on Saturday and Sunday.