The Bermuda Agriculture Exhibition returned with a flourish yesterday at the Botanical Gardens after a two-year absence.

Visitors were treated to a day of sunny weather — notwithstanding some morning drizzle — while youngsters were wowed by the farmyard animals on show.

Dogs were first up to compete in the Exhibition Ring, with Janice Moran’s Keeshond pooch Puck winning the inter-charity agility competition with a perfect score of 80.

Horses also competed in a dozen categories, cheered on by a healthy crowd of spectators on the adjacent bleachers.

Among the winners on the day were Forza (ridden by Melinda De Costa) for best riding horse, Roseland (ridden by Christian Truran) for best utility horse and Reno (ridden by Amy Terceira) in the western parade category. At 1pm, David Lopes took to the microphone to officially open the event. Mr Lopes is chairman of the AG Show Ltd charity, which has taken over the running of the community fair after the Bermuda Government cancelled last year’s edition for financial reasons. Afterwards, he told The Royal Gazette: “Everybody’s really happy, I haven’t heard anyone complain. We’ve made a few mistakes, but it’s a learning curve.

“It’s a smaller crowd today but that’s usual for a Thursday — we anticipate Friday and Saturday being pretty full.”

Elsewhere at the show, the Jack King Building proved a popular draw, housing animals both cuddly and feathered who had competed in the various show categories.

The room, noisy throughout the day with clucking and squawking, housed everything from rabbits to pigeons to guinea pigs.

Heather Hayes judged the poultry, waterfowl and turkeys — having flown to Bermuda from British Columbia in Canada especially for the event.

“It’s important when you’re showing that the birds don’t have any broken feathers, because they are judged on a points system and it’ll be hard to make up the difference,” she said.

“They also have to have the right feed, fresh water and sunshine.

“If any of those three things are lacking, it’s going to show in the bird immediately.”

Entertainment at the Ag Show came in the form of school choirs, a cheerleading squad from West Pembroke Primary, inflatable slides and a hip-hop act.

The Educational Building housed children’s creative efforts, including recyclable bugs such as a tinselled Zika mosquito and a worm made from bottletops. And for those in need of something sweeter-smelling than pigs and hay, the Montrose Mews House offered all manner of floral delights, presided over by the Bermuda Rose Society.

BRS head judge Peter Carpenter said he was impressed with both the number of flowers entered and the standard on show.

“It was anyone’s guess how this year’s exhibition would go, but there was a very good turnout,” he said.

“The last few weeks we’ve had favourable weather, which helped with the quality of entries.”

Diana Antonition, a past president of the society, added that this year had also seen plenty of junior flower exhibitors.

“We’re trying to get the children and schools involved,” she said. “We had some really good entries from the kids, that’s the next generation coming up so it was really pleasing.”

Back at the petting zoo, Christine Atcheson explained why she had decided to volunteer at the Ag Show for the first time, after attending the event on multiple occasions over the past 30 years.

“This is an annual staple which I brought my sons to, and I was really sad when it was cancelled last year,” she said.

“We thought we were going to lose the Ag Show.

“This is something worth giving time for, because it’s one of the few things we have on the island which is culturally unique.”