Record Breaking attendance
The annual National Ploughing Championships came to an end Thursday last in Screggan, Tullamore after three long eventful days. This year’s event achieved record crowds of 291,500 up 8,5000 on last year with the first day alone bringing in a crowd of 112,500 . The FRS Stand proved once again to be a great success over the three days and although wet conditions and flooding forced us to close our stand early on the second day, our stand and live demonstrations were back in action on the final day.
The FRS team from all of our divisions, Farm Relief, Fencing, Training, Recruitment and Herdwatch were out in force. Outside we had our FRS trainers carrying out live chainsaw demonstrations which drew in the crowds along with fencing demos, which were shown live on the big screen. The crowd were more than happy to get involved in the live demos asking and answering questions and showing their own skills at tying off fencing wire.
Herdwatch Figures on the rise
Herdwatch had a very successful ploughing and were constantly busy in both the FRS Stand and the Innovation Arena. Sales for them were up 20% on last year with the app becoming more and more popular each year amongst farmers. The Herdwatch mascot ‘Herdie’ made a return to the ploughing and people of all ages stopped to have their photo taken with him.
What else happened at the ploughing?
We were delighted to have North Tipperary Hospice helping out at the tea and coffee station where they raised donations of €1,000 which will most definitely be put to good use.
Anyone that was interested in becoming farm relief operators came to chat to the staff and to fill out an online application form that can also be filled out on www.frsfarmrelief.ie/careers . The team also launched the new ‘New Zealand / Ireland Live, Learn and Earn Exchange Programme’ – that provides a unique opportunity which will see applicants live the dream, learn on the world’s best farms and further develop their farming skills in each other’s countries during their complementary peak seasons. More details on the exchange are available on www.frsfarmreliefservices.ie/nzexchange
