Monday, 10 November 2014 14:51

Country’s coming to town

Written by Rural News Group

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ORGANISERS ARE expecting 100,000 people to attend this week's Canterbury A&P Show in Christchurch.

The show, which runs from Wednesday 12 to Friday 14 November, has been around since 1893 and is the largest agricultural and pastoral show in New Zealand, with more than 1700 showing classes and over $100,000 in prize money.

Event director Geoff Bone says that livestock, equestrian and feature competition entry numbers are up this year.

"With shearing and wood-chopping entries still coming in, 2014 entries are going to far exceed 2013's entries. This means that we will see some of the highest entry levels in the show's history, " says Bone.

Equestrian entry numbers are second only to the Royal Show held in 2009. Bone says this is in part due to the introduction of two new sections, European Native Breeds and Golden Horse.

"Sheep and wool and fibre entries are also up on 2013, an encouraging sign for the sheep industry, and we've received the most Boer Goat entries ever."

In preparation for the show thousands of animals are already descending on the Canterbury Agricultural Park showgrounds, where they will be housed for the three days of the event. Dairy and beef cattle in particular are settling in, giving the animals time to familiarise themselves with the grounds and ensure they are in top form for the showing rings on Wednesday morning.

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