LAST week’s hosting of the National Ploughing Championships was truly a festive experience: positive, life-giving, hopeful and truly a celebration of all that’s good regarding culture and tradition in our heritage.

Harvest time is indeed an occasion of rich blessing, a time to gather all that has been planted and cared for since the early spring. There can be no harvest without all the necessary tilling, planting, pruning, weeding and nourishing that accompanies any fruit that ripens into something good and nourishing.

“To those who attend, no explanation is necessary; to those who do not, explanation is virtually impossible. Suffice to say, your education is incomplete unless you have been to one of these gatherings.”

This was the inspirational beginning of our president’s speech as he launched what was the most successful championships ever. Portlaoise Parish was delighted to be associated with this year’s National Ploughing Championships.

Since the National Ploughing Championships began, Irish farming has changed profoundly. The crop areas under wheat have gone from 147,000 hectares in the late 1940s to 94,200 hectares in 2011; those under potatoes from 142,000 to 10,400 hectares; while the number of farms has decreased sharply over the same period. These figures reflect both the urbanisation of Irish society and the modernisation and greater productivity of our agriculture. But they also provide a powerful reminder of the challenges facing Ireland’s agricultural sector. Enabling young farmers to access the land they need to make a living in agriculture is perhaps the greatest of all these challenges.

In the same regard, the absence of beet and its production has caused huge long-term pain despite its initial bonus. Carlow’s sugar factory is a devastating loss of both employment and economic stimulus, especially during these months of autumn harvest.

The ploughing championships are a unique occasion on which people from across all the counties of Ireland mingle, discuss their achievements and concerns and, of course, admire the mastery and diligence of contesting ploughmen and women. The diversity of competition categories featured at the National Ploughing Championships bears testimony to the impressive variation of skills involved in the art of ploughing. Conventional and reversible, single-, double- and triple-furrow ploughs, junior and senior – all these categories demonstrate the dexterity and versatility of Irish ploughmen and women. These national talents were aptly reflected in the achievements of our new world champions, John Whelan and Eamonn Tracey, who won the gold and bronze in their respective competitive classes at the world ploughing contest in Alberta, Canada earlier this year. This is an achievement of which they, their families and the Irish ploughing community at large can indeed be very proud.

Such a performance attests to the culture of excellence that has ensured the success of Irish farming. Our agricultural sector not only plays an important role in providing for the domestic market, it has also conquered international markets. Irish beef, lamb and dairy have a well-established reputation internationally. Our agri-food sector, which last year exceeded €9.2 billion in exports and supports some 300,000 people in employment, has a central part to play in the long-term economic recovery.

The American poet and farmer Wendell Berry wrote that a good farmer is at once “husband and husbandman, the begetter and conserver of the earth’s bounty, but he is also midwife and motherer. He is a nurturer of life.”

Our president reminded us that often the basic ingredients are indeed the most productive and nutritious: “The sustenance mission of agriculture sets it apart from all the other sectors of our economy. If you follow the food back to the farm – if you follow the nutrients, the minerals, the trace elements – you will end up in a field of wheat, corn, barley or potatoes.”

As we enter into the most vulnerable and darker months of the year, may we be confident in the abundance of hope, peace and nourishment that gives us a sense of true harvest thanksgiving.