Ploughing championships 2023

I won't be going, it's a poor event and I have no intention of supporting that greedy family.

Absolutely, nearly every mainstreem breed society and AI company had there best on show, If you were in early enough you would see the owners/handlers washing and prepping and you might catch a chat with one or two for a few mins about there marvelous stock. The Charollais tent would have cattle that you would travel the country and not see the likes of them anywhere else. Cows in the 900kg or a 1000kgs category and a calf nearly as big as the cow rearing it. In reality I'm sure the calf was lost in the rushes for months before being registered and had prob ate enough nuts to keep red mills going. But that was beside the point. It was one of my highlights every year

That’s when Patsy was in his prime and selling lots of cars, a lot of society’s held their all irelands there and most now in Tullamore. Back a few years ago spent two days on a stand and was only given 3 tickets per day for 10 breeders to man the stand and had to give the old lady big money per square metre, she slowly choked the good out of it for the farming side, there are more good shows around the country now and balmoral is a handy spin up the road and book the highland early for flights is a great day out.

I like it. Its what you make of it. It's always easy to look at the negative side. Go, don't go. But please stop. If its not everyone's cup of tea then have coffee

Won't be going this year, and probably won't be again unless its very close to me. I know lots of people complain about the school kids, but I went twice with the school in 2000 and 2002, great craic and I wouldn't begrudge anyone the same experience.

The main reason I have no plans to go is that the show has become "too big", while at the same time, every year having less and less stands that I am interested in. I was at the 3 years in Tullamore, even during those years, you could see the decline as some of the large stands pulled out, e.g. Massey. I think by the last year in Tullamore there was no stand by Massey, John Deere, Case, Landini, McCormick, Claas. Open to correction on that.

My Dad and I went last year, and we did enjoy the day, but there was a lot of junk stands with the kind of sales men you see late at night selling vegetable choppers on TV, and lots of stands you'd see at Clara market. We were very disappointed that there was virtually no livestock at it, and also no cars, there used to be huge stands from VW, SKoda, Toyota, BMW...... On the way out of the Tullamore show this year we said we wouldn't bother with the Ploughing.

I think the two main people that the Ploughing is advantageous to would if you want to compare the same machinery made by different manufacturers, and likewise, if you are building, or renovating a house as there are lots of stands on the building side of things.

A lot of it is “pure and utter hardship”. And charged top dollar for the privilege.

I'd imagine the site is getting pretty messy with all the rain

Just after getting a video sent to me from the main area today, it does not look good. Couple of inches of water on top of the metal walkways and around a couple of exhibitor stands. I can't upload it for some reason but its looking very wet after all the rain today. Hopefully it will clear up and dry a bit by opening on Tuesday. In fairness to the lads that do the setting up, they can do amazing stuff in a few days with mulch and tracks if they get half a chance.

Looks as wet as the ifa leader on the rte news tonight that woman who spoke before him was a million miles better hes a waste of space

Places like that dry fast enough. It’s traffic while it rains that ruins a place

I’d say they’re furious with that kind of publicity. But realistically it’s only a few days now until it opens. Unless Sunday and Monday are super drying days it’s not looking great. The weeks weather looks very broken though

But why would you? It’s not like you can do a test drive there