Irish innovators showcase future of farming at Ploughing 2026

The future of farming was firmly in focus at this year’s National Ploughing Championships as Irish companies showcased new technology aimed at tackling some of agriculture’s biggest challenges.

From artificial intelligence and livestock health to methane emissions and veterinary prescriptions, the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena at Screggan, Tullamore, provided a platform for emerging ideas alongside the traditional machinery and competitive ploughing for which the event is best known.

Twelve Irish agritech innovators reached the final stages of this year’s competition, presenting technology designed to help make farming more efficient, productive, safe and sustainable.

Among the biggest winners was Kilkenny-based Telenostic, which was named the 2026 Innovation Arena Champion for OvaCyte, an artificial intelligence-powered system designed to improve parasite detection in livestock.

The technology allows for rapid parasite detection and is intended to help farmers make evidence-based decisions about treatment, improve herd health and reduce unnecessary treatments. 

Sarah O'Dwyer, Chief Veterinary Officer at Telenostic, received the award on behalf of the company.

There was also success for Roscommon-based VetPal Technology, which was named Start-Up of the Year.

Founded by Alan Gormley, VetPal developed a veterinary prescription management platform which connects farmers, vets, co-operatives, agricultural merchants and pharmacies through a compliant digital workflow.

The Start-Up of the Year award came with a €10,000 prize, along with specialist mentoring and advisory support from Enterprise Ireland.

Environmental challenges facing Irish agriculture also featured prominently among this year’s winning innovations.

Kildare-based TERRA NutriTECH received the Green Impact Award for CH4Guard, a precision dosing platform designed to deliver methane-reducing supplements through drinking water to grazing livestock.

The technology aims to make reducing emissions from animals at pasture more practical and measurable, as the agriculture sector continues to examine ways of improving its environmental performance while maintaining food production.

Meanwhile, the Young Innovator of the Year award went to MastiTrak, led by Nadia Powers, for technology focused on the earlier detection of mastitis.

The smart mastitis detection system is designed to support earlier intervention and improved herd health, while potentially reducing the use of antibiotics. The award category is open to second and third-level students and is intended to encourage the next generation of agricultural innovators.

The Innovation Arena has become an established part of the National Ploughing Championships, providing Irish agritech businesses with an opportunity to demonstrate their work to domestic and international audiences at one of the country’s largest annual events.

Technology was also making its mark elsewhere across the huge Ploughing site.

The 2026 Machine of the Year award went to the Manitou MLT 625 e, a battery-powered compact telehandler, with the winner announced during the opening day of the Championships on Tuesday, September 15.

The combination of electric machinery, artificial intelligence, digital management systems and emissions technology demonstrated the increasingly important role innovation is playing within modern agriculture.

The Innovation Arena finalists reflected that changing landscape, with the technologies on display targeting areas such as disease detection, regulatory compliance, emissions reduction and animal health.

The finalists pitched their ideas before a judging panel and live audience, with Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, Enterprise Ireland CEO Jenny Melia and chairman Jim Woulfe among those attending the competition.

The awards come as Ireland’s agritech businesses increasingly look beyond the domestic market. Enterprise Ireland-supported agritech companies generated €844 million in exports during 2025 and employ more than 5,000 people in Ireland.

The Innovation Arena is designed not only to put new products before farmers but also to give participating companies exposure to potential customers and international markets, while supporting the development of solutions to challenges facing agriculture.

For visitors to this year’s National Ploughing Championships, it offered a glimpse of how quickly those solutions are changing.

While tractors, livestock and ploughing competitions continue to form the backbone of the annual event, technology capable of identifying parasites using AI, reducing methane emissions and moving traditionally paper-based processes online illustrated another side of modern farming.

The innovations provided a distinctly forward-looking dimension to the 95th National Ploughing Championships, showing that while the event remains deeply rooted in Irish agricultural tradition, attention is increasingly turning towards the technology that could shape how farms operate in the years and decades ahead.