Any move to stage Ireland's biggest annual agricultural event earlier in the year has been rejected by the managing director of the National Ploughing Association, Mrs Anna May McHugh.
Speaking at the close of the event in Ballacolla, Co Laois, Mrs McHugh expressed satisfaction with the success of this year's championships, which will be held on the same site in 2001. An estimated 143,000 people attended over three days.
Next year's championships, however, will be held on October 2nd, 3rd and 4th so as not to clash with the Listowel Races festival in Co Kerry.
She rejected a suggestion that the event could be held earlier, for example late August, when the weather could prove milder and the bulk of the harvest would be over.
Mrs McHugh said that some harvests had not yet been completed in Co Wexford and this was the most suitable time of the year for farming families to take a break.
She said the association's decision to curtail the number of trade stands had been a correct one which had been endorsed by companies taking part. It had taken more than £1 million to stage the championships and the seven-mile steel trackway was a large part of the cost. Despite very wet weather the site held up well. However, the fields used for car parking earlier in the week had to be abandoned yesterday.
The Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association gave a further indication yesterday of the confidence in Irish farming. It announced that the sales of new tractors had grown by 14 per cent in the first half of the year. In all, 1,702 tractors were registered in the first six months. The registration of secondhand tractors declined from 1,705 to 1,603 in the same period.
Mr Michael Nunan, president of the association, said Irish farmers and contractors were expected to spend over £80 million this year on replacement tractors, one of the highest levels of tractor investment. Meanwhile, the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Hugh Byrne, announced he would be seeking changes in EU regulations to allow more forestry planting to take place.
He said he would seek from the EU the increased levels of grant aid for forestry, which came into place in 1999, for farmers who had planted from 1992. He said that he did not see why these farmers had to lose out on the 25 per cent increases allowed in 1999.
He said he would also try and change the criteria used by the EU to determine a farmer, i.e. that 25 per cent of the income should come from farming, to a lower level.
This would, he said, bring thousands of extra acres into forestry and help the Department meet its annual planting target of 25,000 hectares annually. Last year planting reached only 13,000 hectares.
A man was arrested at lunchtime yesterday when a row broke out between traders on the ploughing championships site. A melee involving up to eight people, who fought with iron bars, wooden planks and other weapons, left two men in hospital, one with a suspected knife wound in the leg.
Witnesses said workers from a funfair had clashed with a number of men who were selling illegal fireworks. Mrs McHugh praised the prompt action by the gardai who had dealt effectively with the incident which was untypical of the event.