Today (Tuesday, September 19) represents the official start of the National Ploughing Championships at Ratheniska, Co. Laois.
However, for exponents of the traditional ‘loy’ spade, the event got underway yesterday (Monday, September 18).
Their demonstration of traditional Irish soil cultivation techniques set the scene for a full three days of competitive ploughing classes.
According to the National Ploughing Association’s Anna Marie McHugh, a total of 350 competitors will be taking part in a range of horse, two furrow and reversible ploughing classes.
“There are no international classes scheduled this year. However, the Irish national team will be heading off shortly to take part in the upcoming World Championships in Latvia,” she said.
“In fact, the equipment that will be required at this event will be moved directly from Ratheniska on Friday morning of this week.
“This year’s national ploughing event will also allow for the selection of the Irish team members who will be compete in the 2024 World Championships, scheduled for Latvia.”
The competition ploughing classes are held over a 100ac site at Ratheniska.
“Competition ploughing will always be at the heart of everything that we do,” McHugh stressed.
National Ploughing Championships
Recent research has confirmed that ploughing is not the ‘arch enemy’ when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions within the tillage sector.
As the tillage sector industry looks to the future, one within which the use of herbicides will be strictly limited, it is obvious to many that ploughing will – once more – become centre stage from a soil cultivation perspective.
Consider the facts: Herbicide-resistant weeds are gaining a foothold in all our crops. And given current trends, their numbers look set to increase exponentially.
Blackgrass is a case in point. Over the years this grass weed has developed an almost total resistance to selective herbicides. The only way to minimise the impact of the weed on infected farms is through a combination of cultivation techniques and rotational crop changes.
From a cultivation point of view, the use of min-till or zero-till systems do nothing at all to help the situation. In fact, they probably facilitate the further growth in blackgrass numbers.
Ploughing, however, acts like a reset button. By burying blackgrass seeds to depths below which they cannot germinate, genuine control of the weed is achieved.
So the reality is that ploughing does have a bright future within Irish agriculture.