Thousands of young farmers from around the county got up close and personal with livestock as they gathered for their county show.

This year’s Young Farmers’ County Show and Rally was hosted by the Witney branch of the Young Farmers in Ducklington on Sunday.

The day featured sheep dogs, horses and other livestock. It also included clay-pigeon shooting, a falconry display and a farmers’ market as well as live music and trade stands.

Witney branch chairman Eleanor Martin, 24, said: “It was a little bit soggy but it went well. The type of event depends on the club that organises it and we have gone for a big county show so we hope to have attracted lots of people from Witney. We have had a good number of die-hard farmers as well.

“There is certainly an image people have that farmers keep going for years and years but we are the next generation and a lot of our members have now started working on their families’ farms.”

Sam Allen, 24, came to the event with the rest of the Bicester Young Farmers’ Club and took part in a car cramming competition where he had to get as many people into a car as quickly as possible.

He said: “It has been very wet but good fun. There was a good range of people there.

“I enjoy the show each year and there is healthy competition between each of the young farmers’ clubs.”

Young farmers from the Abingdon, Enstone, Faringdon and Henley clubs also came along.

Miss Martin said: “People tend to just see sheep in fields but today they could get up close to them.

“When we took two sheep to Witney’s Market Square last week for a publicity event they were really popular.”

To celebrate the 2012 Olympics, the county’s Young Farmers’ Clubs had built floats with an Olympic theme.

Oxfordshire Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs is open to farmers between the age of 10 and 26 and is the county’s largest rural youth organisation.