When the sky is blue, it tends to banish the blues for farmers. That was certainly the case in Ratheniska on Tuesday and Wednesday at the National Ploughing Championships.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, with unprecedented demand for sunscreen, shades and sombreros, while wellies and wetsuits were moving slowly.

Underneath the good humour, though, the sense was that farmer spending power was reflective of two challenging years in succession.

While some stands reported good sales, others, particularly those selling larger and more expensive equipment, spoke of enquiries but fewer deals closed than in other years where money was flowing more freely.

There was quite a bit of the hard-sell on display from politicians. It seemed like there could be a cabinet meeting on-site, with Taoiseach Simon Harris leading a full-court press of Government ministers around the site.

A bundle of energy, Harris conducted an interview with Irish Farmers Journal editor Jack Kennedy while cycling flat out on one of the “Break the Cycle” stationary bikes to promote mental health awareness among the farming community.

Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill both accompanied Martin Kenny on a very busy tour of the site on Tuesday, as Sinn Féin set out its stall as the alternative to the current Government.

The visit of European Commission officials to Ireland to examine the case for a renewal of the nitrates derogation was a major talking point across the week.

They were guests of IFA president Francie Gorman, accompanied by other farm organisation leaders, on David Kerr’s dairy farm in Laois on Wednesday.

Lifeblood of the nation

I had eyes and ears out to see if they would visit Ratheniska when so close by, but they hadn’t been spotted at the time of writing. It might have been instructive for them to see what is the most compelling example of just how intrinsic farming is to the lifeblood of the nation.

No one would accuse the tiny but very wealthy Duchy of Luxembourg as being centred around farming, but that is where the newly-announced European Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hansen hails from.

Appointing someone from a country with an agricultural output of €375m and a GDP of over €72bn sounds a bit like putting someone from Tyrone in charge of the Kilkenny hurlers, or a Kilkenny man over the Tyrone footballers.

That said, both Hansen and new European Commissioner for the Environment, Swede Jessika Roswall, hail from Ursula von der Leyen’s moderate EPP grouping, of which Fine Gael is also a member.

Health

It also came to notice that the Commission portfolio of Health and Food Safety has been rebranded as Health and Animal Welfare.

It would seem the Commission’s concerns have switched from protecting people from unsafe animals to protecting animals from unsafe people, with live exports likely to come under the microscope.