Ploughing Stats

 With of this year’s National Ploughing Championships on the way, preparations are in full swing. Some of the more unusual and interesting statistics from the event are:

• The first visit to Laois by the NPA would have been as far back as 1943, this is the 5th ploughing championships in the county.
• Taking place from the 24th to 26th of September, the championships will require over 700 acres including  150 acres of competitions, 100 acres of trade arenas and demonstrations and over 400  hundreds of acres to accommodate the free car parking.
• Last year the championships attracted 187,000 people during the 3 days making it the largest show of its kind in Europe.
• This year over 400 temporary staff, mostly volunteers, will be need to help with the smooth running of the event. This includes over three hundred stewards, judges & supervisors.
• A study carried out by UCD at the 2011 Championships showed that the visitors spent just over €36 million during the 3 days of the event in 2011.  This resulted in a tax take of  €6.6 million for the National Exchequer
• President Michael D Higgins will be the guest of honour at the Opening Ceremony on Tuesday 24th September at 12 noon.
• Trade enquires this year have exceeded all previous years with near on 1,400 exhibitors taking stands at the event.
• 7,500 Trakway panels needed to stage this year has also increased, 22.5 km of Trakway will be laid. 
•  80% will travel from outside the area and travel from locations throughout the entire country, the UK and Europe.
• Nine generators are required on site this year with a huge 45,000 kilometres of electrical cable needed to power the entire venue. That’s about 6,000 kw of generation which is enough to power a small town.
• This year 7,000 fencing panels will be required. This represents 14km kilometres of fencing.
• Over 2,000 signs will be erected using 740 stakes. Internally in the trade arena over 1,400 internal finger point signs will be erected for signage.
• A prize fund of €18,000 is up for grabs in the ploughing completion with 340 entries over 21 classes.
•  Over 80,000 cars are expected to be on the road over the 3 days.
•  The catering section on site will comprise of nearly forty dedicated catering units and will employ over 1200 catering staff during the three days.

Within this catering section:

• There will be approximately 160,000 bottles of minerals drank.
• 60,000 cups of tea and coffee sold each day.
• During the 3 days, 16 tonne of prime Irish beef and three tonne of local sourced pork will be consumed.
• 5 tonne of Irish sourced soft fruit will be used during the event.
• Approximately 14 acres of Irish potatoes were grown to supply the event.
• Up to 30,000 breakfasts / breakfast rolls will be sold each day.
• 16,000 litres of milk will be consumed during the 3 days.
• 14,000 eggs/over 4 tonne of cheese.
• 1,500 boxes of fresh Irish salads