The Ploughing Match

Following the cancellation of last years match due to the foot and mouth outbreak, this year's ploughing match was a success as the weather was dry and there were plenty of entries.

It is a real "farmers day out" and I always see friends that I sometimes only see at the ploughing match these days.

You can see everything from horses to the biggest modern tractors at work.

This picture shows a horse ploughman adjusting his plough. The competition to prove you can plough the neatest straightest furrow is fierce and they seem to spend half the day on adjustments to get it "just right".

Here using a tractor from the mid twentieth century a contestant ploughs his allocated strip of land. from the enlargement on the right it is possible to get some idea has to how straight the furrows are. The judges have to have a very keen eye, and are very critical.

These animals with the white rump's are actually mules (a cross between a horse and a donkey) which were also used mainly in the USA I believe.

Horses although associated with ploughing were only really used during the 19th and early 20th centuries, as before that Oxen were mainly used as they still are in some countries today.

As Alan and I said while watching them plough, tractors have actually been ploughing for as many years as horses as they appeared as traction engines using steam power in the late 19th century.

Besides the ploughing there are also many stands from the agricultural firms supplying the farming industry.

This example is of our milk buyers Dairy Farmers of Britain. DFB organize the sale of our milk for our farm along with 4000 other farmers transporting millions of litres of milk every day of the year.

To learn more visit them at www.dairyfarmersofbritain.co.uk

The ploughing match is a day I and all farmers enjoy.