National Ploughing Association is delighted return to the Fennin Farm again this year as last year’s event was a resounding success, both from the quality of the land for the much important ploughing competitions to the accessibility of the site for exhibitors and visitors.

Ploughing has always been a sport between neighbouring farmers in Ireland. This sport reached a point in 1931 when two farmers from Kildare and Wexford had an argument over which county had the best ploughmen. As a result the National Ploughing Association was born and the first National Ploughing Championships were held in Athy, Co Kildare, with a total of 40 entries. Not much is known about this first plouging championship, but it is known that Wexford won the county championship with Wicklow and Kilkenny finishing second and third while Edward Jones won the individual title.

Early ploughing competitions were for horse drawn ploughs, and it was not until 1949 that tractor ploughing became part of the competition. Since then the Ploughing Championships have kept pace with the development of machinery and technology of farming equipment. Today the National Ploughing Championship is the largest annual exhibition in Ireland and is run by the National Ploughing Association of Ireland.

Today the National Ploughing Championships attracts crowds in excess of 100,000 people over the three days that make up the event. Today the championship is on such a scale that nearly 1,000 stalls will be present to showcase machinery, industrial equipment, cars, tools, gadgets, livestock, household items, books, animal feed and fashion among many other things. The event is truly a national event and attracts visitors from all walks of Irish life, and not just the farming community.

National Ploughing Association,
Fallaghmore,
Athy,
Co. Kildare,
Ireland
Phone 059-8625125  Fax 059-8625172

Trade Exhibitors

http://npexhibition@npa.ie

Media Relations
media@npa.ie

Site Works & Ploughing Championships
furrow@npa.ie

 Caterpillar Inc plans to open an excavator assembly plant in Victoria, Texas, that will employ more than 500 people and triple the company’s capacity to produce excavators in the U.S.

Caterpillar, the world’s largest construction equipment manufacturer, expects production work at the 600,000-square-foot plant to begin in the middle of 2012. Construction of the plant will start next month.

“Based on our comprehensive review of possible locations, Victoria’s proximity to our supply base, access to ports and other transportation, as well as the positive business climate in Texas made this the ideal site for this project,” said Gary Stampanato, Caterpillar Vice President with responsibility for excavators. “Caterpillar is committed to maintaining its global leadership position in the excavator industry, and this new facility in Texas will play an important role in our long-term plans to provide customers in every region of the world with the products and solutions they need to help them with their businesses.”

In addition, Caterpillar produces excavators in Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Indonesia, Japan and Russia.

The new facility will manufacture the two models now made in Aurora, as well as several additional excavator models now produced in Akashi, Japan, and exported to the United States.

Caterpillar said the expansion of excavator production in the U.S. will allow its facility in Japan to better serve the growing demand for excavators in Asia.

The manufacturer recently announced plans to quadruple excavator capacity at its manufacturing facility in Xuzhou, China, primarily in support of growing demand in the Chinese market.

SOURCE: Caterpillar newsroom

he general business situation continued to improve in 2010 as national economies recovered gradually from the crisis. Since midway through 2009, worldwide industrial production has begun to increase in volume again, and world trade prospects are also encouraging.

In the first six months of 2010, the Liebherr Group’s turnover was 4.6 % or 149.0 million € higher than in the corresponding period of the previous year, and totalled 3,415.0 million €. Construction machines generated a turnover of 2,120.4 million €, a slight increase of 41.4 million € or 2.0 %. (more…)