As competitors plough those final few practise furrows this week, the National Ploughing Association (NPA) is gearing up to host Europe’s largest outdoor event – the National Ploughing Championships.

The European Vintage Ploughing championships will take place alongside the national finals this year. Eight countries are taking part across five competitions, with around 26 competitors.

With the bad spring and summer, a lot of remedial works were undertaken on the ground, with the organisation happy with ground conditions for this year’s event in Laois, Anna Marie McHugh, the assistant managing director of the NPA said.

She told the Irish Farmers Journal that there is a large number of exhibitors booked in again for this year’s event.

“New companies have come on board, such as Tesla. The Local Enterprise Village is exciting this year, with 30 companies across a huge cross-section of the economy. This year we’ll also have a sensory space for children with autism,” she said.

“The solar and renewables sectors are big this year with us; there’s a lot going on in that sector, along with a lot in plant and machinery. The Irish Pig Society and the Donegal Bee Society will also be there. There are some new additions to the sheep section, along with a shearing area this year,” she said.

Lidl will be at the Ploughing and some new food and beverage operators, she added.

Two stands sure to attract plenty of footfall will be the 2 Johnnies, who will be recording podcasts over the three-day event, and of course the national brown bread baking competition, which has a new sponsor in the form of Euronics.

The impact of the Ploughing on the economy is north of €50m, McHugh said.

“This isn’t just on the area around it, this is right down to the people filling up the car in west Cork. Farmers love Ploughing week, they like good food and they pay for good food.

“Every bed is gone in Laois for 12 months or more. We have groups coming in from right around Europe, agricultural advisers from Denmark and we are expecting as many international visitors as usual, along with a number of country ambassadors endeavouring to extend their agricultural portfolio in Ireland,” she said.

Last year, over 90% of tickets for the event were sold online. This was up from 70% in 2022, McHugh said.

Ticket sales will be online again this year and are priced at €25 for general admission.

This rises to €30 at the gate on the day, but visitors are being urged to buy online to ensure entry.

We are a national association and we’re always looking for new places to run the event, that door is always open

Tickets will only be available at the gate if the event is not sold out, the NPA has advised. This year will be the last year that the event will be held in Laois, with the NPA scouting for a new venue for 2025.

“Farmers have been really good to us, with quite a lot of events going on between the Electric Picnic and the Scarecrow Festival as well,” she said.

She said that it’s important a county is ready to host a big event such as the Ploughing.

“We are a national association and we’re always looking for new places to run the event, that door is always open,” she said, adding that the location must be feasible. One hour can tell you a lot about a site; overhead wires and how flat the ground is. It is getting more difficult [to find suitable sites].

“The amount of ground we need is huge, it’s heading for 1,000ac,” she said.

Motorway access

Would she like to see the event move out of Leinster?

“Of course. The gardaí have told us that motorway access is a huge factor and not to have the event in a corner of the country. We’ve been up to Louth, over to Galway and Dublin, we’ve looked at places like that. We don’t have a rule that it has to be on within an hour of NPA [HQ]. The public like a new venue and like to explore around a new area.”

McHugh ruled out the NPA buying a site to host the event and said that there hasn’t been appetite from the public for it to be located permanently in one area.