National ploughing competitions cancelled
At a National Ploughing Association Executive meeting this week the NPA made the difficult decision to cancel all National Ploughing Finals 2020 with the exception of Senior qualifier classes for 2021 which include qualification for the World Ploughing Contest scheduled to be hosted in Ireland next September.
The qualifying classes have been postponed until October 6th, 7th and 8th, conditional on HSE and Government recommendations at that time.
The NPA Managing Director Anna May McHugh said: "The executive reached the decision to cancel the Trade Exhibition back in May in the hope that by September the National Ploughing Classes could go ahead behind closed gates, however as public health and safety is the NPA’s foremost priority and with the recent surge in Covid-19 cases the association felt that the safest option for everyone involved was to cancel the competitions. With visitor attendance last year of 297,000 and up to 1,700 exhibitors the full event was not an option in the midst of a global pandemic."
Exhibitors, visitors and patrons have all expressed their disappointment with “no ploughing this year” and the NPA together with a number of associates have planned a programme of online activations during what should have been 'Ploughing Week' starting on September 14th with the Enterprise Ireland and NPA Innovation Awards, Exhibitor promotions and activations on September 15th – 16th – 17th and the Aldi, NPA and ICA National Brown Bread Baking Competition finals on Septembe 17th.
With an annual economic impact reported to be in the region of €45 million the loss of this event is massively significant to the Irish Economy however the NPA are looking forward to September 2021 (15th-16th-17th -18th) marking the 90th year of the NPA and Ireland will be hosting the World Ploughing Contest in tandem with the National.
National Ploughing Association Managing Director, Anna May McHugh added: “When lives are potentially at risk then we all have to take stock and just limit our activities to an absolute minimum – we will see brighter days please god in 2021 and I look forward to getting back to 'the ploughing' as we know it.”