Westmeath is surely present at this years Ploughing Championship

The many National Ploughing championships return once again and Screggan Co Offally is expecting to see a whopping 80,000 attendees descend upon the grounds for the championships opening day.

Many more are expected over the next three days among which will be countless Westmeath visitors and businesses.

Local businesses like 2210 Patisserie, E-Vehicle Accessories Ireland, and Better Plants are just a few Westmeath Based businesses that will be making the trek down today.

As well as local businesses two Westmeath women have an important few days ahead of them as they head into the semi finals of the National Brown Bread Baking competition.

Ber Ennis of Ballinagore and Therese Lonergan from Athlone will be going head to head with six other competitors in an effort to hold the honour of Best Brown Bread. They will be baking live for anyone interested in taking a look. The top four will then move on to the finals on Thursday, September 17.

Aside from the local aspect, those who are there purely for the ploughing won’t be disappointed.

This year a whopping 180 acres have been set aside for ploughing competition. There will be over 350 competitors taking place across 34 classes that are made up of both modern and traditional ploughing techniques.

As well as the main event, there will be plenty of livestock on display as well as competitions for various breeds.

This barely scratches the surface of what's on offer over the next three days. Farmers will have the chance to highlight their struggles over the past year, the Google AI team will be available to discuss the ever changing industry, culture, environment, safety, and more will all be represented and available to anyone interested.