School & college trips

Follow the food chain at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair

The Royal Welsh Winter Fair provides the perfect and unique opportunity to show school children and college students the food chain from farm to fork.

From seeing the animals in their pens, students will be able to take in the vast number of different breeds – whether it’s the cattle, sheep and pigs or the chickens in the Poultry Show on the second day of the fair, there will be hundreds of different breeds on display.

Chat to the farmers and exhibitors to find out what is involved with rearing the livestock.

Next, watch as the animals are prepared to be showed. See them in the rings and witness the judging process – what makes the perfect animal and who will take home the coveted rosette?

Then there is the livestock auctions on the Tuesday afternoon where hundreds of buyers vie to purchase the top exhibits.

A visit to the carcass hall will show the inquisitive students what the animals look like when they come out of the slaughter house. Hundreds of examples of carcasses will be on display with the opportunity to speak with professionals about what’s on show and where our popular joints of meat come from.

Links to the curriculum at the Winter Fair

There will be butchery demonstrations to see how the carcasses are cut into the pieces of meat we recognise from the butchers window or supermarket shelves.

Next there is the meat products pavilion where you will see examples of dressed poultry on the Monday and sausages and other meat products on the two days of the fair.

Cookery demonstrations then show how the meat can be used in all sorts of dishes, from burgers, to stir-fries, from curries to bacon sandwiches… the possibilities are endless.

Then of course there is the finished product. Between the food hall and the Christmas farmers market, students will see the end product for sale and on display – the perfect example of hours, days, weeks, sometimes years’ worth of effort from breeders, farmers, butchers and producers to bring us the food we all know and love.

School and college trips are welcomed and encouraged to come along to the Winter Fair. Sharing the knowledge around agriculture and how food is produced is vital and an initiative the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society is keen to get increasingly involved in.

For every ten child Winter Fair tickets purchased, organised school and college trips will receive a free adult ticket.

For more information on how your students could benefit from the trip to the Winter Fair and details on the facilities available on site please call 01982 553683.