The first 90 of the Irish Farmers' Association 939 branches will cast their votes tonight to elect a new president of the organisation.
History is being made in this election which sees four candidates seeking the job soon to be vacated by Mr Tom Parlon, who has held the post for four years.
Because there are more than two candidates, the 80,000 membership will use the PR system, and each branch will have one vote, irrespective of size.
Voting will continue until Friday, December 14th, and the count will be on Tuesday, December 18th, at the CityWest Hotel in Dublin.
A poll by Irish Farmers' Monthly put the IFA's current deputy president, Mr John Dillon, ahead of his rivals with 31.3 per cent of first-preference votes.
It placed Mr Padraig Walshe, the IFA's national dairy chairman, in second place with 27.6 per cent of first preferences, and Mr John Boylan third with 21.6 per cent of the first-preference votes.
The remaining first preferences, 19.5 per cent, will go to Mr Raymond O'Malley, the former chairman of the national dairy committee, who was a late entrant to the race.
On the basis of the poll, the IFM editor, Mr Paul O'Grady, has predicted that Mr Walshe, a Laois dairy farmer, will win the race because he will pick up more preferences than Mr Dillon, who he said had "polarised" the vote.
Because the outcome will be decided on transfers from outgoing candidates, a new scenario has been emerging in recent days which might render that prediction inaccurate.
A new syndrome which farmers are calling the Northern Alliance may cost the front-runners the prize and give victory to Mr Boylan.
Mr Boylan, a soft-spoken Monaghan man who has made no enemies in his 30 years in agri-politics, has not been involved in any of the bitter fighting between the two front-runners.
Should Mr O'Malley be eliminated on the first count, Mr Boylan's geographical and broad sectoral interests could push him ahead of both the others because he is most likely to pick up second preferences from Mr O'Malley and from any other outgoing candidate.
Dillon supporters have claimed that he is being opposed by the permanent structure which runs the IFA on the grounds that he is too militant for their liking and could not be controlled by them.
They are outraged at editorial comments in this week's Irish Farmers' Journal which said:
"The old tactics of mass disruption, marches and demonstrations have only a limited place now and will probably have less in the future".
They believe this was aimed at their man because Mr Dillon has claimed credit for forcing most of the militant actions over the past four years, including the beef blockade and the sit-in at the EU offices which won major concessions on headage payments.
Supporters of Mr Walshe deny that he is being overtly supported by the permanent IFA structure and say there is no evidence to prove this.
They say he will be elected on his record on the dairy committee and his work as former president of Macra na Feirme.