An estimated 150,000 people are expected to attend the National Ploughing Championships in Mogeely, Midleton, Co Cork, from tomorrow to Thursday. The event will be officially opened by President Mary McAleese today.
While this is the largest outdoor farming event in Europe and the largest ploughing championships in the world, it has assumed an importance far beyond the rural community.
Those attending the event will include Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and all the party leaders, while all the political parties will have stands at the show.
There will be plenty of evidence that the so-called "phoney war", signalling the run-up to the next election, has at least enough substance to ensure a heavy political presence.
It will be a politically important event too for the two main farm organisations for which presidential elections are taking place to lead the Irish Farmers Association and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association.
This year marks the start of farming freed from subsidy. The breaking of the link between EU direct payments and farm production began on January 1st last and is being replaced by a single payment.
While the farming community will not get its single payment, which has replaced all previous subsidies and direct payments until December, this will be a bumper year as farmers have now received 40 per cent of the payments due from last year.
This should mean that at least for this week, there will be a confidence in the farming sector which has also seen a good summer and a decent harvest. All the elements are in place for a celebration.
The scale of the championships is mind-boggling. As usual the event has its special plan which will affect traffic movement within 32 km (20 miles) of the site.
There will be 700 exhibitors oa 20-hectare (50 acre) tented site on the grounds near Midleton, just off the N25 which links Cork and Waterford. A massive 65 hectares (160 acres) of tillage land has been set aside for the 300 competitors, from every county in Ireland and from five countries.
Car-parking space will occupy a further 81 hectares (200 acres) and the tented villages where the exhibitors will be set up will occupy an area of just over 18,580 sq m (200,000 sq ft).
There will be more than €20 million worth of farm machinery on display at the site and millions of euros worth of cars, vans and of course, four-wheel drives.
All the main cattle-breeding groups will be there. They have been a growing part in recent years of the championships, a sector which has been promoted heavily by managing director Anna May McHugh.