AN agricultural show which prides itself on its aim to attract the wider community is celebrating one of its most successful of recent years with the fine, sunny weather drawing the crowds.

Keeping with the theme of being a window on the life of a farming community, visitors to Malham show were able to have a go at sheep judging and to see how working sheep dogs are trained.

Chairman Ashley Caton said: "We're trying to make agriculture more inclusive so we use the show to help to explain what it is to be part of the farming community."

So new to this year was a sheep judging competition in which the public were invited to pick the best out of four animals and later to learn if they agreed with a qualified judge. Next year the event is to be expanded.

And it was the first year that "interpretation boards" were on display which explained how the judges went about their jobs picking the best sheep and cattle and identifying the different breeds.

"It meant people watching could be more included in the judging process in that they could see how the judges went about it and what they were looking for," said Mr Caton.

This year also saw the christening of the new storage building on site which has doubled up as a "stage" for the children's entertainment which this year was a magician and Punch and Judy.

Both the boards and the building have come courtesy of help from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Sustainable Development Fund.

"We're very grateful for the help from the national park - they have proved to be really useful," he said.

New entertainment was also provided by Amos Dewhurst of Winterburn Working Sheep Dogs who introduced the secrets of training and handling working dogs .

And another new feature - a huge hit - was the young handler classes for sheep and cattle. The sheep young handler prize was won by Thomas Caton with his one year old texel sheep 'Rosetta'.

Show President, John Mitchell said it had been one of the most successful of recent years and the auction at the end had raised £400 for charity.