The ploughing can be a taxing three days for those who have to work at it. Early starts, long commutes and months of preparation can take its toll.

Dave Cummins

The Smoke and Grill House

"This is my seventh ploughing. Last year, working at the ploughing was crazy. We had three units here and we had to close one unit because of the rain. You won’t get any money back if you have a unit closed so it was stressful and it was tough, everything got destroyed. One of my units was a write-off and we had to replace everything so we are hoping for better this year! We will see how it goes, you can’t judge these things. But it is enjoyable. It’s what we do, we do it all summer. You get out there, you give the event a crack. It is like putting money on a horse, you may make money, you may not. But by Thursday evening you are exhausted!"

Paul Feeney

Vogelsang

“We stated preparation for the Ploughing this time last year, sorting accommodation and organising equipmentthat needs to be sent from the factory in Germany. There were three of us down here setting up last Wednesday getting everything ready. We are staying in Tullamore so we've been up since 6:30am. My role is to give service demos on our X-Good Distributor, among other things. This is my third time here. We are in a good few markets in Ireland, agriculture is one of biggest of them so it is good to do service demos and show people on the ground how to change the wear parts etc.”

Enda Kelly

Garda

"We were in for a briefing at 7am where you find out where you are going, what area you will be looking after, what are your duties in that area, the map of the area. You are told where the main stalls are etc. We finish at 7pm or 8pm depending on when people have cleared the site. The road traffic will be policed by a different unit, we look after things inside the event. I am here for the three days. It is relaxed enough for us but it is busy. There are plenty of people here so there will be plenty to do. Most of our duty in here will be dealing with people and queries. I have been here myself over the years and enjoyed it. I enjoy working at it too."

Deirdre Marren

Meath

Colm Warren Polyhouse (CWP)

"My father started coming to the ploughing 30 years ago. I will be working here for two days and someone else will be coming down to the stand on Thursday. It took us four days to set up the stand. If the weather is good you enjoy the crowds and speaking with people. It’s a lovely atmosphere here and you always get good leads from it. It can be intense. It is a long day, especially when you are travelling from a distance, you're up at 5am and not home until 8pm or 9pm."