Dairy co-op Tirlán intends to concentrate on a series of milk supplier open days in September this year and will not have an exhibit at the National Ploughing Championships.
The co-op said that the milk supplier open days will provide its members with an opportunity to tour Tirlán’s Ballyragget processing facility in Co Kilkenny.
As a result the co-op does not plan to have an exhibit at the Ploughing Championships which will take place Ratheniska, Co. Laois from September 17 to 19 for the third year in a row.
According to Tirlán it has “enjoyed a long-standing presence” at the National Ploughing Championships and intends to review its participation in the event again in 2025.
Ploughing Championships
Separately the supermarket group Aldi has decided not to renew its sponsorship with the National Ploughing Association (NPA) which will mark its departure from the ploughing event after a 13-year run.
An Aldi spokesperson previously told Agriland that its team, customers, and suppliers had been “immensely proud to have been an active supporter of this truly unique event which represents so much of what is good about Irish life”.
But it added that it was “the right time in our strategic growth journey to pursue new partnership opportunities”.
According to the NPA 200,550 people attended the 2023 National Ploughing Championships.
The 2023 figure did not manage to beat the record set in 2019, when 297,000 attended.
Meanwhile the NPA assistant managing director, Anna Marie McHugh, has said that selling tickets online was increasingly being seen as the norm and the way to go within the NPA.
She said that this system will be in place again for the 2024 championships and some unsold tickets will also be available at the gate.
“Last year it was a big issue, but online sales were already 65% going into last year. It’s embedding into the organisation now.
“Online sales went way up last year,” she added.