Three British Blondes from the Johnston farm at Ballymacan, Clogher, will be shown at this year’s Balmoral Show.

The duties of getting the Ballymacan Blondes prepared for the major event has been taken on by Lexie Johnston and his 13-year-old granddaughter Victoria; they are among three generations working on the farm, where they keep mostly Blonde D’Aquitaine but also some commercial sucklers.

Lexie’s son Roger and his grandson Andrew, 17, farm full-time, while Roger’s daughter, Victoria, enjoys helping out. “All three generations will be going to the show,” said Roger.

This will be the family’s third year to exhibit at Balmoral, where they have won classes in the past.

“A championship win would be nice,” admits Roger, who has been involved in the farm since he left school.

He followed in the footsteps of his father Lexie, who has always farmed, and his children are now following in their footsteps.

Roger, who runs Roger Johnston Contracts, a fencing business, is certainly kept busy.

They keep sheep and he has been busy with lambing at the family farm, while Andrew Johnston keeps his own pedigree Beltex sheep flock. Roger’s mother Dorothy and wife Carole, who run Northwick House care home, Brookeborough, also help out.

However, the duties of washing, grooming and preparing the three Blondes twice a week leading up to the show has been taken on by Lexie and Victoria. They are also walking ‘Ballymacan Iris’, ‘Ballymacan Isabel’ and ‘Ballymacan Just In Time’ in preparation for the Balmoral Show, where the animals will find themselves in different surroundings.

Every year, the Johnston family attend around 10 or 11 shows on the show circuit. Balmoral is the first, and locally they exhibit at Omagh, Clogher Valley and Fermanagh County Show at Enniskillen.

Recent local successes included winning the Blonde Championship title two years in a row at Clogher Valley Show, and then they took the Reserve Junior Interbreed honour in Enniskillen last year.

The Johnstons have been working with pedigrees since the late nineties but they only started showing them in the last five or six years.

Andrew and Victoria take a great interest in showing the animals, according to Roger, who admits it is a “time consuming” pursuit, but also an enjoyable one.