In ways, you could compare the National Ploughing Championships to a marathon – well you certainly could if you work in the Irish Farmers Journal.
You’re thinking about it for months, preparing for weeks, and when the time comes, you power through on some kind of adrenaline buzz.
Crossing the finish line on Thursday evening, we were on a high after a fantastic three days on our stand.
Our cookery demos with Paul Flynn were a great success, we laughed with our readers during our family farm quiz and our Break the Cycle campaign really made Ploughing 2024 memorable.
Our aim was to cycle 720km over three days, to raise awareness for mental health in rural Ireland. But the support was so incredible, we surpassed our goal on day two and by Thursday evening had clocked up 1,277km. More so than that, people gave generously and we raised €15,404.
We undertook this campaign in association with Tirlán and all the money raised goes to Aware, specifically their support line, which operates seven days a week.
This is an important outlet for farmers and their families, to speak to someone who cares and can support them through their struggles.
Our campaign runs until the end of September and we are asking readers to please donate if they can. You can click here to support this great cause.
Thanks to everyone who cycled, put their hand in their pocket and who visited our stand. It was great to see you all and we’d welcome a little more of that sunshine again next year please.
We are thrilled to announce that our Women & Agriculture conference will take place on 24 October in the Lyrath Hotel in Kilkenny
Ploughing is always a great opportunity to talk to readers. One topic that people were keen to discuss is the article that Jacqueline Hogge and Janine Kennedy had in last week’s paper about the Hot School Meals Programme.
The programme was rolled out in 2019 to 30 schools. Now 345,000 pupils have a hot meal in primary school every day. It is a really important scheme, that eases the pressure in households and encourages children to try new foods – however, it is not flawless.
While some schools have healthy lunches using local ingredients with Irish suppliers clearly listed, other parents told us of providers that couldn’t tell them what country some of the ingredients were coming from, nevermind a specific supplier.
So we’re asking parents and teachers to tell us about their experience. We have a short survey that you can fill out by scanning the QR code on this page.
We really would appreciate your feedback so we can continue to follow the story to get a better picture of how readers feel about the scheme, what areas can be improved upon and how Irish farmers and local suppliers can be included more.
Finally, we are thrilled to announce that our Women & Agriculture conference will take place on 24 October in the Lyrath Hotel in Kilkenny (page 5). We have an agenda that is full of interesting speakers, including health and performance coach Gerry Hussey (page 6).
Having grown up on a farm in Co Galway, he has a real understanding of the challenges that farmers face, and how we can all work on building resilience that will help us deal with the twists and turns that life, and farming can bring.
However, the people on stage are just one element of this conference. It’s about meeting friends, old and new.
I’m looking forward to meeting the women that come every year, the familiar faces that have made this conference the success that it is. And we’ll also have a warm welcome for our new attendees, who get to experience this conference for the first time.
If you’ve been on the fence in previous years about booking a ticket, I’d encourage you to make some time for yourself. You won’t regret it.
