{"id":23610,"date":"2025-08-26T05:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T05:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/23610\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T05:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T05:11:08","slug":"farming-sector-looks-forward-to-national-ploughing-championships-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/23610\/","title":{"rendered":"Farming sector looks forward to National Ploughing Championships \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer is almost over, which means the National Ploughing Championships <\/a>are close at hand. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s event, from September 16th to 18th, returns to Screggan outside Tullamore in Co Offaly for the first time since 2018. A Marian shrine near the entrance frames the 700-acre site. <\/p>\n

The last time the championships were held there in 2018, the second day had to be cancelled when Storm Ali blew through the site and caused damage to the stands. <\/p>\n

Its central location and its ease of access from the M6 and M7 motorways attracted record crowds to Screggan in the past. About 250,000 people are expected over the three days. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe cross and Marian shrine which overlooks the site in Screggan. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s ploughing comes at the end of a summer in which few farmers have complaints about the weather, with the sweet spot of sufficient sunshine and rain much in evidence. <\/p>\n

The weather has been almost \u201cultra-co-operative\u201d, said Irish Farmers\u2019 Association <\/a>(IFA) president Francie Gorman. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a good year for livestock and dairy farmers, but as ever in agriculture, there are issues, he added. <\/p>\n

However, he said, tillage farmers are suffering because a glut in the world market is depressing the price of grain. The IFA, as they did last year, will be looking for a package in this year\u2019s budget to help those farmers. <\/p>\n

Before the ploughing launch, the IFA met Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon <\/a>and Fine Gael party leader Simon Harris<\/a>. Trade matters, such as United States tariffs and the Mercosur deal with South American countries, which the Government opposes, also weigh heavily on the farming sector. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Joe Grogan inquest: Millionaire farmer died the day after he was marriedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

That contentious deal, which cuts import tariffs on EU-South American trade, has encountered opposition from farmers and environmentalists in the EU because it involves opening the European market to cheaper South American agricultural products.<\/p>\n

Mr Heydon said it had been a \u201cgood year for farmers\u201d with a lot to celebrate. However, there are still outstanding issues that need to be resolved, he said. These include the State\u2019s nitrates derogation, which the EU could further tighten or scrap, and the Common Agricultural Policy payments to farmers, which could be radically overhauled under a draft proposal from the European Commission. <\/p>\n

National Ploughing Championship assistant managing director Anna Marie McHugh is anticipating there will be greater interest from politicians in this year\u2019s championships. <\/p>\n

\"SadieSadie and Maeve Sheeran at today’s event in Screggan outside Tullamore, Co Offaly. <\/p>\n

For the first time since 2011, a presidential election will be in full swing by the middle of September, and she is expecting all the presidential hopefuls to make their way to Screggan at some stage. <\/p>\n

She is also anticipating that President Michael D Higgins will make one of his last public engagements in the role. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would expect all the candidates to be here pressing the flesh. Everything in the week of the ploughing is about rural Ireland. We are very proud of the forum we give to farmers that week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe corn is finished and we hope that people can get out and attend the ploughing.\u201d <\/p>\n

She stressed that, at its core, the event is still about the ploughing. <\/p>\n

The championships have drawn a powerful programme this year, attracting entries from all over Ireland, with more than 350 competitors set to participate.<\/p>\n

Irish ploughers are \u201cat the top of their game right now,\u201d she said. Present at the launch were Jer Coakley, west Cork (Reversible class) and Martin Kehoe, Wexford (Conventional class), who received a warm send-off before the 70th World Ploughing Championships in Prague this year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summer is almost over, which means the National Ploughing Championships are close at hand. This year\u2019s event, from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,19967,18,11985,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,14684,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-23610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-chappell-roan","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-electric-picnic","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-stradbally","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}