Agricultural businesses from Fermanagh and surrounding counties reported a busy week with enquiries and sales at the National Ploughing Championships held over three days in Co. Laois last week.

The event was the first held since 2019, and attracted 277,000 visitors over the three days.

Machinery exhibitors were a big draw and there were plenty of local companies getting attention.

The Clarke Machinery Group, from near Cavan, had numerous implements featured on their stand including the Echotec Tree Shear manufactured near Magheraveeley.

The company says it is an innovative and creative manufacturer supplying attachments and implements to the agri, forestry and construction industries.

Specialising in the supply of tree shears, they offer standard, tilting and rotation models. Echotec offers a service for bespoke design and manufacture to meet the needs of its customers.

The Redrock company, which had an extensive range of slurry tankers and sheargrabs on their massive trade stand, were also launching a new range of dump trailers.

Frank Flynn of Redrock said these were among the first trailers manufactured at their new Fivemiletown facility which has a workforce of 15 people, and has a need for a further 15 fabricators, welders and assemblers.

These dump trailers are half-pipe design and sit lower for smaller excavators and for road works. They come in sizes of 16 tonnes, 18 tonnes and 20 tonnes. They feature full commercial running gear and are rated to 60k.

Despite challenging times, Redrock has had a busy year, exporting to 12 countries as well as having a big local market share.

Another relatively new company to feature at the National Ploughing Championships was M-Tec Engineering, from Swanlinbar, run by members of the Melanaphy family and part of the Enterprise Ireland marquee.

Adrian, Patrick and Therese Melanaphy were all on the stand, where they featured a new range of trailers; a small tipping trailer and a livestock trailer.

The family began manufacturing small general purpose trailers and progressed to a tipping range, and are now beginning to expand their livestock trailers range as well as plant trailers and flat beds.

They reported a full order book from the first day of the ploughing event.

Supporting the family in their innovative business was Heather Humphreys, Minister for Social Protection.

Other companies with a local link was UTV LED Lighting Systems, where design engineer, Jack Campbell from Ballinamallard, and colleagues were demonstrating their high-quality range of LED lighting for tractors, vehicles and machines. The company can design bracket systems for various vehicles.

They featured a range of light bars and work lights.

Also featuring at the Ploughing Event this year was William Allingham from Quadcrate, based at Garrison. He was demonstrating a quadbike with his bubble cab and reported a number of sales after one and a half days.