I Farm: “Tillage and sucklers to beef”.

Family: “My wife Anna Marie (McHugh), who is deputy managing director of the National Ploughing Association, and son Saran”.

Ploughing: “I’m a ploughman in Wexford, it’s in my blood. My father Eugene ploughed. That’s where I met Anna Marie, at the end of a ploughing furrow in Denmark! I’ll be ploughing at the Wexford competition in Oilgate the week after next. In my class, senior reversible, I will be up against the current world champion John Whelan.”

This Week: “I’ve been on site for the past three weeks, helping in site construction. During the event I do everything and anything, transport, crowd control, traffic, wherever I’m thrown.”

The Aftermath: “We’ll be straight back in here at 8am Friday morning, starting the process of getting the land back to the way we found it. Absolutely everything has to be gathered up”.

Weather: “The weather makes the ploughing for competitors and the crowd. This is a fabulous site, the road structure in Laois is excellent.”

Attraction: “I think the different venue is part of the appeal. Guys enjoy travelling and seeing the land in other parts of the country.”

Cows: “I’ve 45 Limousin cross and Charolais cross cows that I breed to a Charolais bull, as well as some AI.”

AI: “I’m also a part time AI man for Progressive Genetics in Co Wexford.”

Grain: “I grow mostly spring barley to feed to my own stock and sell the surplus. We got good yields and as for the harvest weather, sure you couldn’t ask for better. However, it’s 24 September, the grain is all delivered but I still don’t know what price I am getting for my grain.”

Farming: “Beef prices are crippling us. I finish my own sucklers and buy in some bulls. The change in factory specs was outrageous. For a suckler farmer to have the goal posts moved while we were in mid-stream was just not good enough”.

Quotable quote: “As well as a farming festival the ploughing is a family holiday. Farmers work very hard all year, the ploughing might be the only holiday that they get”.