It was the day space age met planet ploughing on the tillage fields of Scraggan.

From the air, it looks a bit like the biggest rock concert ever — 700 acres of stalls, tents, stands, enclosures, and amazing machinery that could easily pass for a U2 set-up.

Anna May McHugh, the organiser of the National Ploughing Championships, has helped to steer the event through tough economic times and, with the help of her daughter, establish it as a hardy annual, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

A 700-acre site will be transformed in to the hub of agricultural and rural life when the National Ploughing Championships opens.

Up to 50,000 people are believed to have visited the opening day of the national ploughing championships in Carlow today.