MORE than 4000 livestock schedules have been sent out to potential exhibitors at this year's Royal Welsh Agricultural Winter Fair which takes place on the Royal Welsh showground at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, on November 27 and 28.

This will be the 16th annual Winter Fair, now regarded as the finest prime stock show of its kind in the UK and 184 classes and special awards have been scheduled for cattle, sheep and pigs, horses and ponies.

Entries close on October 18.

A Royal Welsh Winter Fair Poultry Show is run in conjunction with the event for which entries close on October 30.

The sale of stock, a highlight of the Winter Fair, will take place on the second day. Buyers will be required to register a number and obtain special lapel badges at the auctioneer's office. These will give access to reserved seating opposite the sale rostrum and permit easy identification by the auctioneers of purchasers of stock among the crowds of spectators when the sale is in progress.

The 2005 Winter Fair saw the supreme champion beast sell for £5100 and the reserve supreme for £4700. The champion Welsh Black made £2128. Sheep prices realised £820 for the supreme champion. The record price for the Winter Fair champion stands at £12,000 obtained for a Limousin cross steer in 2003.

The livestock auctions at the Fair begin at 10.30am with the sale of lamb carcasses in the Carcass Hall. Sheep are sold from 12noon in Hall 3 of the Royal Welsh Exhibition Centre and cattle go under the hammer starting at 3pm in Hall 1. The champion and reserve animals will not be sold before 3.15pm. Maximum reserve prices for the winners will be £2700 for the supreme champion and £2500 for the reserve.