Tullamore and the AIB National Livestock Show yesterday celebrated the 15 years since its revival when more than 55,000 people attended the event at Charleville Estate on the outskirts of the Offaly town.
What has now become the foremost agricultural show was officially opened by Minister for Agriculture and Food Mary Coughlan, whose department was officially represented for the first time.
It was one of the 500 trade and machinery stands and business arcades covering one million square feet of the Charleville site.where the one-day event was held and which cost €600,000 to stage.
As the success or failure of many such events is frequently gauged by how the traffic is managed, gardaí managed to get this right and traffic flowed freely on to the site.
Even the weather was kind and the sullen sky held back the rain all day where 1,250 of the best commercial, pedigree and dairy cattle competed for 42 national titles on offer for a prize fund of €150,000.
Special veterinary restrictions were put in place to prevent the spread of equine infectious anaemia - swamp fever - through the 950 horses which took part in judging, jumping, carriage-driving and other competitions.
Ms Coughlan praised the voluntary effort which has gone into the show over the years and which has now risen to involve more than 500 people from dozens of local organisations.
She used the occasion to make a number of important policy announcements, including new aids for the beef-producing suckler farmers.
She said there was a danger that the beef-producing herd could shrink because farmers no longer had to keep a requisite number of animals to qualify for EU direct payments.A series of initiatives would be announced in September to ensure that herd numbers were kept up, which would involve supporting the artificial insemination services.
Ms Coughlan paid tribute to Minister for Finance Brian Cowen and to PD Minister of State Tom Parlon for their support in the agriculture sector.
Also on the reviewing stand were the chairman of the show, Tom Maher, the secretary, Freda Kinnarney, Fine Gael's Denis Naughten and FG agriculture spokeswoman, Olwyn Enright.
There too were the Leinster FG MEP Mairéad McGuinness and Fianna Fáil TD Seán Fleming, as well as the leaders of the main farm organisations.
The show attracted visitors from all parts of the island and from Britain. There was particular interest in the new forestry exhibition which was promoting afforestation as an option for farmers. There was enormous interest too in the machinery exhibition where the estimated value of machinery on display was €100 million - one tractor unit alone cost €320,000.
Christy Maye, the public relations officer for the show, said that one of the reasons for its success was that it had managed to retain all the best elements of the traditional show yet it had moved on to meet the needs of modern commercial farming. Officials on the Department of Agriculture said it was receiving queries at its stand about the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (Reps) and the new hygiene schemes.
"When we were in Kildalton in Kilkenny some months, the queries were all about the single farm payment, but we seem to have moved on from that now," said one senior official.