The 2019 National Ploughing Championships kicks off this week in Balintrane, Fenagh, Co Carlow.

The annual show attracts more than 240,000 visitors across the three-day event.

With around 1,700 trade stands and exhibitions on show, the competitive aspect of the event is sometimes overlooked.

The National Ploughing Championships is the pinnacle of the competitive ploughing calendar.

Ploughing remains a highly skilful sport and, throughout 2019, competitors have ploughed in over 50 local ploughing matches across the country in the hope of securing a place in this year’s national championships.

Finals

This week will see the nation’s top plough men and women battle it out to win the top prize in their respective classes.

Over the course of the three days, over 300 competitors will compete in 23 classes, ranging from horse-drawn ploughs to two-furrow conventional plough, to loy digging. Below is a breakdown of what classes are ploughing each day.

Three-furrow conventional senior and junior classes.

Under-28 conventional senior and junior plough classes.

Under-21 conventional senior and junior plough classes.

Under-28 reversible plough class.

Intermediate conventional plough class.

Intermediate reversible plough class.

Vintage two-furrow trailer plough class.

Under-40 horse plough class.

Novice reversible plough class.

Five-nations competition (day one).

Senior conventional plough class (day one).

Senior reversible plough class (day one).

Farmerette conventional plough class.

Macra two-furrow conventional plough class.

Vintage two-furrow mounted plough class.

Senior horse plough class.

Five-nations competition (day two).

Senior conventional test match (day two).

Kverneland reversible test match (day two).

Junior conventional plough class.

Standard three-furrow reversible plough class.

Vintage single-furrow mounted plough class.

Special horse plough class.

Novice senior, intermediate and junior plough conventional classes.

Vintage single-furrow pedestrian tractor class.

Loy digging.

Competitors, classes and ploughs

Below is a list of the competitors and their respective classes. You can also see what tractor they will be ploughing with and what plough they will be using.

Tuesday’s classes

Tuesday will see 124 competitors compete across 10 classes.

Wednesday’s classes

Wednesday will see 81 competitors compete across seven classes, including day two of the five nations reversible ploughing competition.

Thursday’s classes

The final days of the championship will see 125 competitors compete across seven classes. We will also see the test match for the senior conventional and the Kverneland reversible classes held on that day.