NI premier’s appeal to ploughing contest at Antrim (1945)
Some 4,000 farmers from all parts of the province attended the Northern Ireland Ploughing Championships, in which 64 ploughmen, representing 35 societies and Young Farmers’ Clubs, competed at Antrim during this week in 1945.
Samuel McLean, Forttown, Ballymoney, with 90 marks, won the horse ploughing championship by two marks from Harold Adams, Loguestown, Portrush. Adams won the gold medal for Young Farmers’ Clubs’ competitors. The tractor championship went to R A Erwin, Killead, with Joseph Price, Crumlin was the runner-up. There were only two swing ploughs at work, both from Armoy, and their handling was watched with interest “as this type is fast disappearing from general use”.
Sir Basil Brooke, Prime Minister, who was the president of the Northern Ireland Ploughing Association, in a brief address emphasised the appeal made to tractor-owners to lend a hand to their neighbours who have no mechanical assistance during the coming months.
“You have worked as a team in providing food during all the war years,” he said, “and I ask you now, during this very critical year, which we hope will be the victory year, to keep up the team spirit and see to it that the plough does its work and that the food comes into the larder.”
That day's event, he thought, should be regarded as “a curtain raiser” for a greater event still when they would have expert ploughmen from all parts of the United Kingdom present.
“No matter who comes,” he said, “I feel that the ploughmen of Ulster will hold their own.”
The Reverend Robert Moore, Minister of Agriculture, said he hoped all Ulster farmers would exert themselves and complete their ploughing in good time, and thus avoid some of the troubles they had to contend with last harvest season.
The prizes were presented by Mrs John Drennan, Carse Hill, Limavady, and Mr John McCabe, on whose lands the championships were held, received a gift from the Northern Ireland Ploughing Association, which organised the event.