There was a record attendance yesterday at Tullamore National Livestock Show which can now claim to be the largest one-day outdoor event of its kind in the agricultural calendar.
More than 35,000 people attended the event at the Charleville estate, a mile from the Co Offaly capital, where more than 2,000 animals were shown in various competitions.
Not even the lure of the All-Ireland hurling semi-final in Croke Park involving the host county and Cork, the largest county in Ireland, which boasts almost 25 per cent of dairy output, could spoil the day.
The match failed to reduce the size of the crowd but it meant that the official opening ceremony was kept to a reasonable length.
For those who attended the show, the match could be seen on television sets. Two large sets were perched on 40-gallon drums on the official stage and hundreds of showgoers crowded around to watch.
At one stage, the national media centre was left powerless when someone liberated the generator supplying power to their computers so that a large television set hoisted on a forklift could be seen by showgoers.
While the tussle was going on in Croke Park, there was even more serious business being conducted in the show rings where 1,100 animals and more than 1,000 horses were being put through their paces.
At stake yesterday was all the silverwear which used to be presented at the Spring Show in the Royal Dublin Society. In the last decade, when that show failed because of falling support from the farming community, it was sponsored by Powers distillers and moved to Tullamore.
Breeders and farmers like the show because it is a one-day event located centrally and the costs of showing an animal are not very high. It also comes at a valley period in the summer work period.
The quality of animals on show yesterday was, according to the judges, the best they had seen and there were entries from all 32 counties.
The Supreme Championship in the commercial beef section was won by a 21/2-year-old Charolais heifer shown by Mr Benny Keating, of Templemore, Co Tipperary.
In the breeds categories, S.E. and E.P. Hennelly, Rosses Point, Co Sligo, won the National Junior Simmental Heifer Championship for an animal under one year. The two-year-old champion heifer in the breed was shown by Mr Richard Flood, who also won the National Livestock Show Simmental Female Championship.
Mr David Brickley's animal won the National Livestock Show Simmental Male Championship.
The overall winner of the National Livestock Show Simmental Champion was a female shown by Mr Flood, The Rower, Co Kilkenny.
In the Limousin breed, the overall winner was shown by Dr Rodger McCarrick, Drumcree, Co Westmeath. The National Livestock Limousin Male Champion was shown by Mr William Smith, Oldcastle, Co Meath.
In the Belgian blue breed, the National Belgian Blue Female champion was shown by Mr Michael Woods, Drogheda, Co Louth, and the male champion by Mr Patrick Delaney, Clonaslee, Co Laois.
Mr John Vaughan, Gorey, Co Wexford, showed the best Belgian blue two-year-old heifer.
The National Livestock Show Angus Champion was shown by B. and J. McEnroe, Oldcastle, Co Meath.
In other competition, Malone Engineering, Deerpark, Ballyglass, Co Mayo, won the National Farm Equipment Award.
Out from the show rings, the winner of the £4,000 prize in the Powers Gold Label All-Ireland Homebaking Championships was won by Ms Mary Kelly, Wilkins town, Ballyhague, Co Wexford.