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You’ve returned to Screggan, Tullamore. Why?
It was a success last year and the whole thing worked. The main reason we’ve returned is the people of Offaly.
We were very well received last year with great local support from the community.
The proximity the M6 and M7 motorways is a huge help for traffic management.
In saying that, we have tweaked last year’s traffic plan to improve traffic flow and make accessing and exiting the event as delay-free as possible.
It worked well last year but we’re always trying to improve it.
Joe Grogan and his neighbours have obviously helped immensely in allowing us to use their land again for which we are very thankful.
Any interesting facts about this year’s ploughing?
The NPA is second only to the Glastonbury music festival for the largest contract in terms of amount of steel track hired between Ireland and the UK.
The bill will be in excess of €750,000 this year and there’s a total of 30km on site.
We’ve looked at buying our own trackway but between maintenance and specialised trucks to lay it, it wouldn’t make financial sense.
Some of our team have been in place since the third week of July and may not leave until November.
There will be 200 acres of ploughing with over 350 competitors. Over 1,000 live animals are expected, including buffalo, and there will be a pig agility course.
What’s new this year?
We have a live demonstration area where machinery companies can demonstrate the various qualities of their equipment.
This was something the public and machinery companies were looking for. Also, the innovation arena will be a lot bigger (double in size).
Demand has driven this so we have responded by making the area larger. You could say this is the web-summit of Irish agriculture without the Wi-Fi issues.
This is vital to Irish innovators and Irish companies as people from all over the world will be visiting looking for new products to export.
So far, Enterprise Ireland has over 100 overseas buyers planning to make it to Tullamore. For the young drivers out there we are also running a driver of the year competition in association with Macra na Feirme and Massey Ferguson. This will be run over the three days.
Do you seen any challenges in hosting the ploughing going forward?
Surprisingly and thankfully, very few issues have arisen.
Anywhere we have held the event we have had great support from the local community. More and more companies want to exhibit but we have to give equal representation to all sectors.
We could fill out a lot more rows with more of a particular sector but that alienates another sector. The variety of the event would quickly loose its appeal.
We have had lots of requests from companies but the ploughing has to be an event for everyone.
The biggest challenge we see going forward is not from the farmer or location but from a land use perspective.
The issue arises when a prospective site is under GLAS or a similar environmental scheme and the NPA use it as a car park, for example, for a few days. In future, this may require a derogation from the Department of Agriculture or even from Brussels.
Whatever does happen, the NPA will always do right by the landowner first and foremost. If it requires travelling to Europe to get clarity on this then that is what we will have to do. This has never been as issue before but the detail in these schemes is very particular.
The NPA have and always will abide by the requirements of these schemes.
Anna May brought out a book this year, why?
Anna May has seen a lot over the years and people wanted to hear her story.
The book is a reflection of her life experience and her 65 years in the NPA.
The first ploughing had 25 exhibitors and has grown exponentially since with more than 1,700 exhibitors this year.
She has been asked many times over the years to put pen to paper. We have no doubt it will make for a very interesting read.
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