SUMMER, or anyway mid June, is upon us. The countryside looks marvellous. Just the rain spoils things. It is difficult to blame people for spending holidays abroad, when the weather here is so unreliable.

A British summer used to consist of a series of two warm days and a thunderstorm. This year it is two dry hours and a thunderstorm.

In days gone by many rural towns and villages had their own show. Farmers used to take their best animals to be judged against the best that their neighbours could produce.

Winning was the more pleasurable because it was confirmation that others thought well of animals which you rated highly.

There were problems. Sometimes the judging was not based on strictly objective criteria.

One year a neighbour persuaded my father to enter a pig in a local village show. It was not something that we had done before and the selected pig was washed and cleaned for some days before the show. We still have photographs of this splendid pig, who now looks old fashioned.

When we took her to the show she looked superb and quite rightly won her class. She was, therefore, entered for the judging for the best pig at the show. To our disappointment she only came second, a decision with which we did not agree, though we said nothing.

Later in the afternoon the judge came to see father and said that our pig was easily the best there, which was what we had thought. He followed this up with the remark that the owner of the supreme champion had done a lot for the show over the years, and therefore he had to get the prize!

We never bothered to enter again.

Local shows are not only for livestock, or even for farmers. Garden produce, both vegetables and flowers, is entered. There are obedience classes for dogs, though never for children. Dogs must be easier.

There are classes for chutneys and jams, for cakes and for bread. A great deal of fun is had by all. It is always better if the day is sunny, but modest amounts of rain can be managed.

Many of these shows have now fallen by the wayside, though some still prosper. The largest one-day show in the country takes place at Driffield, in July.

Such shows take a great deal of organising, and need committees and secretaries, venues and entrants. The days are long gone when we would be prepared to take a pig to mix with neighbours' pigs and then bring them home to mix, once more, with ours. The disease risk with such pig-to-pig contact is too great for normal commercial producers like us.

Many make a serious part of their business out of showing their animals, especially if the publicity can help them get a better price for breeding stock.

Sadly, one more repercussion of last year's foot and mouth outbreak is a huge pile of extra restrictions placed on shows by DEFRA. Some have responded by not having livestock at all, some, which run for more than one day, by restricting the time the animals are there. No one wants to run a risk of a further outbreak, but it is to be hoped that these rules are temporary, and subject to regular review.

One of the main conclusions of the report into the Future of Farming and Food was that the food chain had to be reconnected. Consumers had to be clear where their food came from and the standards to which it was produced.

The country shows are a very good starting point for that reconnection. Let us hope that they prosper.

Updated: 10:31 Tuesday, June 18, 2002