Day three of the National Ploughing Championships will go ahead as planned on Thursday, September 20.

An additional day of the event will take place on Friday due to today’s cancellation.

First of all, students who had purchased and received tickets for the event today, will be able to use these on either Thursday or Friday.

Day tickets can be used as usual and will be valid on both Thursday and Friday.

The schedule of events is still unclear. The National Ploughing Association (NPA) confirmed to AgriLand that the Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools Competition will go ahead at 11:00am tomorrow (Thursday, September 20), but a number of events have yet to be confirmed.

One event that is a certainty is the ploughing itself. Competitors will turn their first sods at 10:30am.

Exhibitors

Exhibitors will be allowed to stay on site tonight (Wednesday, September 19) to repair damage and prepare stands for tomorrow and Friday’s event until it is deemed unsafe to do so.

It is also understood that exhibitors will be able to clear stands over the weekend.

Today’s cancellation

The decision to cancel day two of the event was made just before noon. The news came as Storm Ali swept across the country, causing severe damage in places.

Weather conditions originally forced the NPA to delay the opening time of the event to 11:00am this morning but this was later pushed back to 12:00pm.

However, due to the severity of the weather conditions, the full day’s activities were then cancelled.