This year's Virginia Show on Wednesday, August 20 saw such a high standard of cattle that judging went on longer into the evening than usual.

Crowds had gathered around the astro-turf show rings at the Showgrounds in Virginia from early morning to see the livestock on display.

Judges from across Ireland and as far afield as France and Italy were tasked with tapping forward their chosen winners across the dairy and beef-breed classes.

The Irish Charolais Cattle Society and the Irish Limousin Cattle Society hosted their North Eastern club championships and Harry Heron and Oliver Rambert judged these respectively.

The North Eastern Charolais Club Calf Champion went the way of an entry from Simone Maguire from Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan. This bull calf went on to win the Overall Charolais Champion and the Reserve Interbreed Champion of the Show.

In the Limousins, the overall Champion went the way of a heifer from the herd of the Connell brothers from Co. Meath, with a bull owned by William Smith taking reserve.

It was a great day out for Niall and Simone Maguire, who also took home the Commercial Calf title as well as the Overall Commercial Champion and later, the Carnaross All Ireland Female Championship titles for their smashing heifer Rockvalley Biscuit.

The Reserve Commercial Champion went the way of an entry from the Stevenson family from Co. Donegal.

The aforementioned Limousin Champion owned by the Connell brothers from Co. Meath went on to win the Interbreed Champion title.

Next up was the Carnaross Mart All Ireland Male Weanling Championship and taking first here was an entry from the Stevenson family in Co. Donegal.

Second went to Pearse McNamee's entry, with third going to an entry from Mark Leonard, Co. Westmeath.

In the Carnaross Mart All Ireland Female Weanling Championship, first went to the aforementioned entry from Simone and Niall Maguire.

Gareth McGuinness from Co. Louth's entry took second and a heifer belonging to the Stevenson family took third.

The penultimate event of the beef breed classes at the Virginia Show was the Liffey Meats €2,000 Champion Super Beef Bullock. With a super entry of beef cattle, judge Alan Farlow had his work cut out accessing the entries for this class.

After in-depth examination of the entries, an entry from Luke and Victor Barnett was tapped forward as the winner of this prestigious class.

Second went to an entry from Sinead and Ciara McKeown from Co. Longford, with third going to an entry from the Stevenson Family and fourth going to Mark Smith's bullock from Co. Meath.

With good weather prevailing and super-quality cattle on show, the Virginia Show continues to be a key date in the calendar of pedigree and commercial show cattle enthusiasts.