This weekend saw the return of the Dorset County show after a two-year break due to the pandemic, and across the two-day-period, organisers expect to see around 60,000 visitors to the grounds to experience all things agriculture.

Arriving in the car park, early in the morning, there were already thousands of cars filling up the parking spaces and queues were trailing all the way back through the car park with a wait time of around 45 minutes just to get in.

As a first time County Show visitor, the experience was unique and certainly enjoyable as there was a whole lot of different things to see, visit, experience and try, I did expect to see a lot more going on, but was informed by a few visitors that I spoke to that there didn’t appear to be as many stalls as they had seen in previous years – but there was still plenty to enjoy.

The family friendly event saw crowds full of happy faces as visitors looked around, as well as hundreds of dogs with wagging tails, one family told me that they had a “lovely day wondering around the stalls and the kids loved seeing all the animals.”

I started my County Show experience with a quick chat with Dorset County Show’s Development Officer, Will Hyde. He said: “There’s a really good turnout of exhibitors, we’ve got a lot of new exhibitors and traders this year – during lockdown, that has obviously been a catalyst for new businesses to get going and use the County Show as a platform and also a lot of new exhibitors who have decided to take up the handling of livestock.”

Mr Hyde described the Saturday morning turnout – as crowds were just arriving – as “really good,” adding “the pre-sale tickets have been very good, so we are hoping for a bumper weekend – we’ll expect 60,000 people across the weekend.”

When asked what it was like to be back after covid, he replied: “It takes a little bit of time to remember what we all do, but we have a really-good support team of volunteer stewards who do sterling work and they are the ones who remember the detail, the boots on the ground.

“I haven’t managed to wonder too far yet as we have mainly been flat out in the office – it’s the usual Saturday morning buzz, as soon as you start putting a few thousand people into the mix, things don’t always go quite as you want them.

“For me, my favourite part of the show is just seeing members of the public there, all enjoying themselves, having a good time, socialising, networking and catching up with old friends, we are really glad to be back.”

As I began my walk around the show, I caught the end of one of the demonstrations, a sheep show, which proved very popular as crowds gathered to watch the adorable, trained animals follow commands upon a stage, even nodding and tapping their hooves when their trainer asked.

Straight after, just next door, Knighton Countryside Management gave a demonstration of one of their new wood chippers, and I spoke to managing director, Mark Gibbens about what they were doing at the show and how long they had been exhibiting there.

Mr Gibbens said: “Our stall has been very popular, because we have been making noise and that works for the show – we are loving it.”

“We have been exhibiting for 10-15 years and we are showing the ‘relatively new to us’ lorry mounted chipper, putting the chip into our trailers which will then get burned for biomass to create electricity which is obviously quite important at the moment.”

Wood chippings were also provided by Knighton Countryside Management and were used across the show’s grounds to cover electric cables to protect them from any wet weather.

Later on in the day, I wondered through a few shopping tents that were selling a variety of goods, from unique homewares to foods, and I did not pass up the chance to taste plenty of delicious cheeses, jams, sauces, gins and other goods.

Tents exhibiting animals proved very popular, ranging from poultry like ducks and chickens to other livestock like pigs and even a few adorable piglets. A bee-expert was also on hand in the bee tent, helping to point out the Queen and tell you about the roles that each bee plays including the Queen, worker bees and even funeral director bees – also giving out stickers.

Dorset Studio school, a secondary school teaching land-based subjects instead of conventional subjects like art, drama and modern foreign languages, had students helping out across the show, whether they were at stalls, or helping out with livestock and I spoke to David Humphreys, Director of Specialism at Dorset Studio School.

Mr Humphreys said: “What’s great about coming to the show today is we have 24 children out helping on the stands, mainly in the livestock areas, wearing t-shirts and people come up and ask them questions for future years.

“Not everyone wants to sit in a classroom – school in the conventional way isn’t for everyone.”

The agricultural show dating back to 1840 saw livestock of all breeds being judged in different categories, as well as the goods that they produce with ribbons and trophies awarded whilst people watched.

Overall, my first visit to the Dorset County Show was a very enjoyable one and not something that you would get to experience normally, there was a good atmosphere and plenty of things to see and do and plenty of adorable animals to view.