The curtains have come down on the 2024 National Ploughing Championships, and the organisers must have been extremely pleased with how the event played out. It attracted 244,000 visitors, which was 43,450 up on last year. Both visitors and exhibitors were blessed with glorious warm sunny weather. No doubt this fine weather had a hand in the extra visitor numbers. Conditions were ideal for the ploughing matches and also for those showing and demonstrating the vast range of tractors and machinery being exhibited.

The National Ploughing Championships was that bit extra special for RT Sales Ltd who won Machine of the Year with their tractor mounted hedge cutter. RT Sales Ltd is a family-owned hedge cutting business from Castleisland, Co. Kerry. The hedge cutter was designed and built by the family run business because of much needed features that were not on existing hedge cutters. RT Sales Ltd is a new company formed by Padraig Teahan and his father in law, Johnny Reidy, who have been hedge cutting contractors for many years. A big congratulations to Padraig and Johnny on their award.

Dealers who booked trade stands at this year’s National Ploughing Championships seem to have been pleased with their three days of exhibiting. Many new orders were placed, which made it worthwhile for a lot of dealers. It may seem an opportunity missed for those that opted out of exhibiting this year. There was a lot of interest from the smaller farmers who were focusing on the value for money machines. It was reported that some of the larger manufacturers stayed away. One company decided to opt for demonstrating their machinery around the country instead of exhibiting at the ploughing event.

With the background of new sales being generated at the ploughing event is this a sign that the market has turned a corner? This optimism may give an incentive for dealers to take out stands at future trade shows. The FTMTA will be holding its Farm Machinery Show in November. Will there be the same level of interest at this event? It was mainly the agricultural dealerships that benefited at the National Ploughing Championships. Will this level of buying enthusiasm transfer to the sportsturf and landscape sector?

If GroundsFest 2024 is anything to go by then there might be signs of hope. This event was held in the UK the week before the ploughing championships on the 10th and 11th of Sept. It was the second year of the show and the organisers were more than happy with how it went. Visitor numbers far exceeded last year (8,014 compared to 6,511 in 2023) and exhibitors seemed very pleased with the level of interest shown at their stands. How this interest transferred into cheque books being opened may well be another story. It will be interesting to see if this level of interest shown at GroundsFest 2024 spills into SALTEX 2024, which is only a month away. 

With so much optimism seen at the recent shows, does this signal the end of the downturn, or was it just a case that the sunny weather got to the heads of the buyers, putting them in a particularly good mood? Time will tell