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Some 277,000 visitors piled through the gates over the three days of the 67th World Ploughing Competition held in Ireland last month.
With our own National Fieldays only few weeks away, Rural News took the opportunity to take a trip overseas – as a guest of Enterprise Ireland, which invited 190 guests from 19 countries – to look at Ireland’s own national event, locally known as The Ploughing.
This year’s event was held at Ratheniska, County Laois, around 90km south west of Dublin on an area covering 900 acres, with around 1,700 trade stands. Held over three days, the event moves around the Irish countryside, unlike our own Fieldays that has a permanent home at Mystery Creek.
After a hiatus, following two years of cancellation because of Covid-19, around 277,000 visitors piled through the gates. This signalled a need to reconnect, but also the fact that the venue incorporated the 67TH World Ploughing Competition that had relocated at short notice, due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict impacting the original choice of venue.
the largest event of its kind in Europe. It is organised with military precision and adverse weather is taken care of by laying 37km of aluminium roadways – a logistical feat in itself – on what is really a temporary site. Meanwhile, roading access from all parts of the country is undertaken by a team of up to 200 Garda (police) officers and the enforcement of a one-way system that kicks in about 5km from the site.
This all results in traffic moving freely, which could be a lesson learned by our own Fieldays organisers. Alongside this strategy, placement of recovery vehicles means any breakdowns or accidents are dealt with quickly. Meanwhile, local rural posties get a police motorcycle escort to make sure the mail still gets through.
The Ploughing is targeted at a very wide audience. It has livestock displays, horse and tractor ploughing, the hunt pony games, vintage machinery display and even a bread making competition.
further highlight is the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena, promoting the latest in hightech rural technology, but also recognising the ingenuity of farmers, with a separate arena for farmbuilt ideas.
NZ Ambassador to Ireland, Brad Burgess, told Rural News that it was great to be back at Europe’s premier agricultural showcase and to meet with our counterparts from around the world face-to-face once again. “Both Ireland and NZ share many values, so it makes real sense to take a collaborative approach in delivery solutions,” he added.
“This will be expanded with the Joint Collaboration for Agriculture meeting scheduled for October 21. At the same time, it’s great to see Callaghan Innovation lead the first trade mission to Ireland since the arrival of Covid- 19.”
The Ploughing’s claimed economic impact of around €45m ($90m) seems more realistic than the NZ Fieldays’ typical claim of around ten times this number.
Interestingly, this year’s Ploughing seemed to have been shunned by the major machinery suppliers, with companies like John Deere, AGCO, CNH and Claas all missing. However, their local dealers were in attendance.
One can only wonder if they decided to stay away because of their already bulging order books and a long lead time to delivery. Or was it the costs of static displays – particularly freight – when potential customers still want to see the product demonstrated on their own properties?
This year’s Fieldays will feature a Rural Advocacy Hub - bringing together various rural organisations who are advocating for farmers and championing their interests as one team, under one roof, for the first time.
Sean Leslie and Casey Tilson from Middlemarch, with horses Beau and Dough, took out the Rural News Horse Plough award at the Power Farming NZ Ploughing Championships at Horotiu, near Hamilton, on April 13-14.
The mood is relaxed as father and son ploughmen Paul and Derek Houghton get some practice in, but when the national championship starts this Saturday it will be a different story.
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