Fragments from the freak fireball that flew across the firmament the other night were not to be found on the fertile fields of Heathpark, New Ross, yesterday.

Motorists travelling to the National Ploughing Championships in Co Wexford are being warned of lengthy delays on some approach roads.

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

It will last three days, attract close to 200,000 visitors, and cater for 60,000 vehicles on a 725-acre site at Heathpark, New Ross, Co Wexford — welcome to the National Ploughing Championships.

More than 1,300 agri-food and machinery companies will be showing their wares to 190,000 visitors to the National Ploughing Championships in Heathpark, New Ross, Co Wexford, next week.

It’s the event for everyone and anyone with an interest in rural Ireland — which explains why you need 20 hours just to visit the 1,200 trade stands.

Wexford’s three times world champion Martin Kehoe was hailed as “a ploughing icon” by the Agriculture, Food and Marine Minister Simon Coveney when the programme for next week’s festival was announced on the site at Heathpark.

The sports events at the core of the National Ploughing Championships have developed and expanded in recent years — working hard to compete for attention with the soaring interest in the ever more impressive exhibitors and excellent social events.

Blue skies dominated the sunny South-East yesterday as Wexford prepared to host the national ploughing championships later this month.

Bruff-based firm KBO is one of a small number of companies licensed to provide high-speed satellite broadband in Ireland. Now achieving a turnover of €4m, the company looks set to grow this to €10m by 2017, writes Trish Dromey

Almost €10m is spent on trade purchases at the National Ploughing Championships, generating an economic impact of €36m, according to a UCD study carried out at the 2011 event.

IT was a case of the Plough and the Pilgrims in Athy when the logistics of organising the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin next June were compared with those for the ploughing championships.

The O’Dwyer and Kehoe family farms at Heathpark, New Ross, Co Wexford, will stage the 2012 National Ploughing Championships, with other local landowners providing hundreds of acres for parking.