As the stands were being taken down and the machinery being moved off the site, the organisers proudly announced that a record 166,000 people had attended the National Ploughing Championships near Tullamore, Co Offaly, over the past three days.
The managing director of the National Ploughing Association, Anna May McHugh, said the turnout of 80,000 at the site on Wednesday was a record attendance for a national ploughing day and she admitted that it had led to traffic difficulties.
"There was adequate parking and good policing, but the sheer volume of the traffic led to delays getting away in the evening.
"The gardaí made the point, and it was well made, that it took up to five hours to fill the car parks but it was impossible to empty them as quickly, with everyone attempting to leave at the same time," she said.
Mrs McHugh revealed that next year's championships were under threat because the association, which has applied for sporting status to the National Sports Council, cannot stage qualifying events in the winter months when ploughing is effectively banned.
"We have been waiting for a year for our Department of Agriculture to get a derogation to plough in the closed season from October to January, and it still has not come," she said.
Failure to get this derogation to plough the 100 acres of grassland required for the holding of the competitions could lead to a disintegration of the county associations and no ploughmen from areas like Cork and Limerick being able to take part in next year's event.
She said it would be impossible to proceed without the department's approval as site owners could not risk their farm payments by breaking the law relating to the nitrates directive.
Last night the department said the Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, had been seeking the derogation for the competitions to continue since last July.
Mrs McHugh said the main difficulty the championships had faced was the threat of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain. Fortunately that had not materialised and the weather had been good.
The NPA had provided a special stand in Annaharvey for another event that was a victim of this year's weather, the Tullamore Show, which had to be cancelled because of flooding in August.