Almost a quarter of a million people (244,000) attended the 2024 National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co. Laois over the three-day period.
78,000 people attended the final day of the three-day event today (Thursday, September 19), the National Ploughing Association (NPA) confirmed.
A total of 62,500 attended the final day of Ploughing 2023, which means this year has had an increase of 15,500 visitors on the final day when compared to last year.
The 2024 figure did not manage to beat the record set in 2019, when 297,000 attended.
Agriland at Ploughing 2024
Our first panel discussion took place earlier today at 1:05p.m, Why Water Quality Matters to Farmers – featured a range of experts and a dairy farmer, which highlighted the measures that the farming community are currently taking on water quality issues.
We were joined Dr. Joe Patton, head of dairy knowledge transfer department, with Teagasc and Mairead Whitty, LAWPRO’s farming for water project lead together with Ted Massey, senior inspector nitrates and biodiversity division with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Bruce Thompson who runs a dairy farm in Ballyfin, Co. Laois also featured on the panel.
During our second panel discussion at approx 1:30p.m we caught up with Anna Marie McHugh, assistant managing director, National Ploughing Association (NPA) and heard what has been happening behind the busiest shows of one of the biggest events in the agricultural calendar. She was also joined by John Deery, chair of the NPA.
Our first podcast of the day was at 2:00p.m was an unmissable chat with Co. Longford farmer Philip Stewart, who is of course better known as ‘Farmer Phil’.
We heard from Phil how he became a social media star and how he managed to combine this with his day-to-day work on the farm.
Our livestream concluded with the latest edition of ‘The Farming Week’ live from the Agriland stand that was hosted by Agriland journalist Aisling O’Brien, and featured a round up of the ploughing championships from Louise Hickey, Breifne O’Brien, and Hugh Harney.
This will be available to listen to on the podcast section of the Agriland site, or wherever you get your podcasts.