‘You need your stamina for going around’: Ploughing Championships kick off under sunny skies

With a 6.50am early rise, breakfast at home was off the table for John McKeown, but he was not going to brave a day at the National Ploughing Championships on an empty stomach. In a field-turned-car park in Ratheniska, Co Laois – where the 93rd edition of the event is being held – pork smells wafted from the rear of his Volkswagen Caddy. Sausages and rashers were sizzling in a frying pan on a portable stove, which was next to a large flask of tea.
The 76-year-old Cavan man and his friend Paul Hughes, who he picked up early from Tallaght in Dublin, have been attending the farming event for the last 20 to 30 years. So they know by now that “you need your stamina for going around”, Hughes said.
The pair, who are both retired, are not farmers, although McKeown said he grows a small patch of forestry. They keep returning to the ploughing contest to look at the vintage machinery and for “a bit of craic”, said Hughes.
In stark contrast to the torrential downpours that dampened last year’s outing, the sun beamed down over the fields of Ratheniska for the opening day of the 2024 championships. Close to 300,000 people are expected to attend over the event’s three-day run.
The weather change is welcomed by poultry, lamb and beef farmer Cathal Reilly (44) from Co Mayo. A year of “rain, rain, rain” has made farming “tough”, and this current dry spell is a crunch point for fertilising lands and preparing for bringing the animals indoors, he said.
He attends the ploughing event to scope out new and innovative farming methods or feeds that require fewer chemical fertilisers. “There is a big price on all of those fertilisers. If I can find something that reduces my inputs and maximises my outputs, then that is what I am here for,” he said.
Although a full-time farmer, Reilly supplements his earnings by hauling animals, which he said is “pretty much a better income than farming”.
He sees a future in agriculture, but he worries farmers are being put under too much pressure. He said there are new and improved processes, but farmers need time to get their heads around them.
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“The Green Party is pushing us too hard. I think everything should be pulled back and just let everything come in time … I think farmers have had enough,” he said.
Emerging from a University College Dublin stall, 21-year-old Amy Kenny said she has been farming her whole life and recently started renting land up the road from her home in Cloghan, Co Offaly, where she rears dairy calves to beef dry stock.
A recent graduate of UCD’s agricultural science degree, Kenny spotted there was more money to be earned in organic farming and moved into the sector last year.
“It seems to be the way it is going. There is a big push for people to go organic and I think there is a great incentive for it,” she said.
The price of renting or buying land has gone “through the roof”, while other costs are also rising, she said. Dairy farmers are under particular pressure due to tightening restrictions on the levels of organic nitrates that can be spread on farms, she added.
Labour shortages are the biggest issue locally, she said, adding that she does milking work for nearby dairy farmers.
“There is nobody else to do it … All of these young people are giving out that there is nothing to do in this country. They are going off to Australia, but there is so much work,” she said.
Kenny understands the pull of opportunities overseas and acknowledged it is difficult to make a living purely off agricultural work. Asked about her own prospects, she said: “Hopefully I have a long, prosperous future in farming … I will make it a long future.”