All over Ireland, farmers are busying themselves with spring work. For spring cereals, that means cultivation and planting, just like it has for thousands of years.

But one group is already looking forward to the next harvest. For in a corner of Wexford, enthusiasts have come together to honour the long tradition of growing corn to feed ourselves and our animals.

“A Century of Harvest” takes place on Saturday 20 July, in Rathangan, Duncormick. On the day, different methods of harvesting corn will be on display.

Chair of the organising committee, Ray Rochford, says the day will cater for people of all ages and all levels of interest in food production and the evolution of mechanisation.

“It’s the most important story in the history of mankind, when you get down to it,” he says. “Without the ability to grow food for each other, we would all be living a subsistence existence.”

Ray is right, for if everyone had to spend most of their time foraging for food or nomadically bringing their animals to fresh grassland, society could never have evolved into civilisation.

Gradual change

Once early man developed the ability to farm the land and grow enough crops to feed a whole village, everything changed. But that change was very gradual.

The methods used by the ancient Egyptians on the banks of the Nile hadn’t changed much until the Industrial Revolution. It wasn’t until 1701 that Jethro Tull developed the first cornsower. The first mechanical reaper wasn’t developed until 1831.

Indeed, in many parts of Ireland, hand-sowing and hand-reaping were still widely practiced 100 years ago, in the infancy of independence.

The rate of change since then has been astonishing, with increased mechanisation and automation accompanied by the introduction of artificial fertiliser and pesticides to limit the damage done by competing weeds, pests and fungal infections. As yields have increased, the ability to harvest has grown exponentially.

So the story of harvesting over the last century is essentially the entire history of harvesting. In all, 14 separate harvesting processes have been identified, from the hand reaper, to the GPS-assisted “smart” combine harvester.

Along the way were binders and threshers, gamechangers in their day. Then came the first machines to combine both stages of harvesting – which were aptly named.

Using the committee’s wide network of contacts, machinery new and old will be coming from every corner of the country, from Monaghan to Mayo, to take part in the festival.

Johnstown Agricultural Museum and Teagasc are deeply involved, and will be providing a history to accompany each step of the journey of mechanisation, with a display board at each station. Brewing and flour-making will take place on-site, as crop turns to food before our eyes.

The local agri-business community are fully on board. There will be side-attractions, particularly for children and a feast of fresh food.

It promises to be a unique event.

The highlight of the day will be when all 14 harvest techniques are operating simultaneously, providing a window from today right back into antiquity.

This is the story of how we have in one century been able to grow the global population from one billion to eight billion people, and feed ourselves.

It’s the can’t-be-missed event of 2025 for anyone who loves farming, history, pageantry and spectacle.