The 157th Balmoral Show begins on Wednesday with thousands expected through the gates, but one familiar fixture will be missing this year: physical maps. For the first time, visitors will have to rely on the Balmoral app for maps and timetables as the show runs until Saturday.

The change sits alongside a packed programme that includes a motocross display, cooking demonstrations and a children’s sensory trail, while organisers also face a tougher livestock backdrop. Precautions are being put in place because of prevailing infection risks, including poultry flu and Bluetongue, and poultry classes have been dropped from this year’s competitions.

Rhonda Geary, speaking about the preparations, said animal welfare never stands still. “Every year there seems to be something new in relation to animal welfare,” she said, adding that with Bluetongue organisers had asked all exhibitors to have their cattle and sheep vaccinated.

That warning has not slowed interest in the livestock halls. The cattle and sheep sections have reached record numbers of entries this year, and total entries across all categories are more than 3,600. The figures underline the show’s pull at a time when exhibitors are being asked to work under tighter animal-health precautions.

The Balmoral Show is Northern Ireland’s largest agricultural event, and the move away from paper maps is being presented as part of the organisers’ sustainability journey. But the real draw remains the stock itself, where competition and commerce still overlap in the same ring.

Last year, Hannah and Stephen Maginn’s pedigree Salers bull, Sidney, was crowned Champion of Champions and overall interbreed champion. This year, his offspring will be back in the line-up, including one junior heifer and two junior bulls, with Stephen saying Sidney has now “done his time” and is out “living his best life with the cows producing good heifers and strong bulls.”

Hannah said the show acts as a “shop window” for farmers to display their livestock, and that a sale often follows. That is the pressure and the promise of Balmoral in one place: a showcase for breeding quality, a test of animal health, and a market where a strong showing can still turn into a deal by the end of the week.