A sad day for the plough.

This year's Ploughing Championships have officially been cancelled due to Covid-19. The event, which was due to take place this September, will no longer hold its annual trade exhibition due to the current restrictions in place amid the coronavirus pandemic. Organisers confirmed the news this morning, but remain hopeful that the competition itself could still go ahead behind closed doors. "The Executive reached this very difficult decision to cancel the Trade Exhibition as public health and safety is our foremost priority given the current global pandemic," said National Ploughing Association MD Anna May McHugh. "With visitor attendance last year of 297,000 and up to 1,700 exhibitors, we had too many concerns about how we could implement social distancing and the potential risk of bringing together people from all over the country. "However we are still hoping that we may be able to run the National Ploughing Competitions behind closed gates and that situation will be closely reviewed over the next number of weeks." This year's Ploughing was due to take place in Ballintrane, Fenagh, Co Carlow between September 15 to 17. 2019's event saw visitor attendance of almost 300,000 with 1,700 exhibitors showcasing at the trade show.