Scottish Team in Croatia at Church Service

EUROPEAN VINTAGE RESULTS

15th European Vintage Ploughing Championships
held at St Rijkers Alveringem, Belgium on 8th & 9th September 2012

Vintage Conventional Plough Championship (NIVPA European Trophy)
Overall Placings
1st Ian Simms, Northern Ireland Vintage Mounted 540 points
2nd Michael Taylor, England Trailed 501.3 points
3rd John Sivewright, Scotland Vintage Mounted 500.3 points
4th Geoffrey Smith, England Vintage Mounted 491.8 points

Vintage Trailer Ploughs (The Goodyear Trophy)

1st Michael Taylor, England 501.3 points
2nd Gordon Harries, Wales 484.8 points
3rd Hein Ramm, Germany 471.3 points
4th David Kirkpatrick, Scotland 468.0 points

Michael Taylor was awarded the John Costain Cup having scored the highest aggregated points for the finish in the trailed plough class over the two days of competition.

Vintage Mounted Ploughs (The Firestone Trophy)

1st Ian Simms, Northern Ireland 540.0 points
2nd John Sivewright, Scotland 500.3 points
3rd Geoffrey Smith, England 491.8 points
4th Joe Kelly, Republic of Ireland 491 points

Classic Conventional Ploughs (The SPC Bobby Douglas Trophy)
1st Philip Meek, Wales 524 points
2nd Allan Simms, Republic of Ireland 515.5 points
3rd George Allwood, England 512.3 points
4th Peter Sattler, Germany 398.5 points

Vintage Reversible Ploughs (The CDR Coulter Cup)
1st Pete Kuijpers, Netherlands 601.4 points
2nd Gilbert Bulcke, Belgium 582.2 points
3rd Mercer Ward, Northern Ireland 579.8 points

Andrew Mitchell Jnr in South Africa

In October last year I was invited to go to South Africa to participate in a ploughing demonstration at the Nampo show. The invitation came from a company called Tubestone which is the South African importer for BKT tyres and whose ambition is to bring South Africa into the World Ploughing Organisation and send competitors to the world ploughing contest. Ronnie Coulter and I flew from Heathrow to Johannesburg on the 10th of May and met up with William Hood and David Gill who were representing the WPO.
After receiving some refreshments at Tubestones warehouse it was off to Klerksdorp some 250 kms south west of to Johannesburg, which was to be our home for the next 10 days. The next three days were hectic to say the least as the new ploughs which Kvernland South Africa had promised apparently been sold, fortunately Mr Roy Fuller an ex Zimbabwe farmer was able to lend two Kv match ploughs. These ploughs had not been used for 12 years and required a lot of work to get them ready for ground conditions which would test man and machine to the absolute limit. The tractors were new John Deere 5303 4wd models built in India for the South African market and were perfect for the job in hand.
The Nampo show has to be seen to be appreciated with 670 trade stands, which are all agriculture based and most impressive with some tractor manufacturers displaying every model in their range. New Holland had on display their Hydrogen powered tractor while probably the most impressive stand was the John Deere stand which is their biggest display outside the U.S. Apart from the machinery there was a very impressive display of livestock with eight sheep breeds, twelve goat breeds, and to our amazement thirty three beef cattle breeds. Amongst the cattle on display were Angus, Shorthorn, Sussex, poll, many African breeds and some crosses between the two. Beef production differs depending on the area the farm is located, there is everything from intensive feed lots to grazing the veldt grass. Stock numbers on grazing vary on the area from three livestock units per ha to one to sixteen ha, the system used is to have grazing divided into four paddocks with each grazed for six months without any fertilizer applied. The show itself is situated in the Free State, which has been the most arable areas in South Africa with Maize being the most common crop but sunflower, and soya bean are on the increase. The fields have to be seen to be believed, from the roadside they seem to stretch as far as the eye can see with mountains of waste from the many gold mines on the horizon. The soil is rich and fertile with a depth over the Free State varying from half a metre to three metres in some places and we were told that this area would grow anything if it were irrigated. It is interesting to note that fifty percent of the water usage in South Africa goes to agriculture and in spite of it being late summer there was no hosepipe bans. Fruit production is also a major factor with almost every fruit grown on a scale, which is hard to imagine one strawberry farm has ninety-five ha of which sixty five ha is under cover.
And so to the ploughing, David and myself would show interested participants the very basics in ploughing bearing in mind that most of cultivation methods due to wind erosion are min till and ploughing was new to most people. William Hood would attend various meetings and offer advice and Ronnie assisted David and myself with the equipment and explain the various aspects of competition ploughing from a coaches/judges perspective. The four days of ploughing passed so unbelievably quickly and we had the privilege of meeting so many people from a variety of backgrounds and were impressed by the number of young people who are committed to a future in agriculture. We have to ask ourselves were we successful in our objectives, possibly yes as far as raising awareness of world style ploughing is concerned although vintage ploughing has always been strong in South Africa. Success in world ploughing does not come easy and the real work for colleges in South Africa is only beginning, for example there is the issue of the purchase of ploughs for competition which have no use on the farm, training ploughmen from scratch to be competitive at world level, and many more issues. However our hosts Tubestone have never let the difficult or the impossible stand in their way before when you consider that after eleven years with the BKT brand they now are market leaders in South Africa with thirty five percent market share and enjoy ninety percent in some other African countries. We as a team wish Tubestone every success in the future and thank their staff for every moment of their kindness and generosity extended to us during our stay.

Results from Five Nations and Invitation Vintage and Classic 3rd & 4th March 2012

5 Nations and Invitation Vintage and Classic Results March 2012

Dance in Reston Village Hall – Friday 4th May 2012

Organised by Reston Ploughing Association and Merse Vintage Ploughing Club.
8 pm till 12.30 am.
Music by Ewan Galloway and his Scottish Dance Band.
Featuring sets from his recently released CD “Inspiring Memories”.
Admission £6 on the door.
Enquiries to Bill Wood on 07773 041 137.
Bring your own drink. Supper provided. Soft drinks will be available in the Hall.

Five Nations – 3rd and 4th March 2012

The Five Nations Ploughing Challenge will be held on 3rd & 4th March 2012. The event will take place on two different sites, within about 5 miles of each other.

On Saturday 3rd March, it will be held at the South Yorkshire Charity Ploughing Match which will be held at Hatfield Lane, Barnby Dun, near Doncaster, DN3 1DE. On the second day it will be held at the Thorne & Hatfield Ploughing Match which will be held at HMP Lindholme, on the A614 road between Hatfield Woodhouse and Blaxton, DN7 6EE.

The results will be announced each day with the overall winners will be the ones with the highest aggregate points for the two days.

Scotland’s Reps: Ian Williams – Conventional, Neil Ramsay – Reversible, Harry Ferguson – Vintage Mounted, James McPherson – Vintage Trailing and Dave Veitch – Classic Conventional.

Photos of Grampian Supermatch – 14th January 2012

Jim McNair has added photos from the recent Grampian Supermatch to: http://www.mcnair.smugmug.com They are in the “machines” section.

Five Nations (delayed 2011 competition) hosted by Society of Ploughmen

This is being held on 3rd and 4th March 2012 at Lindholme, Doncaster and is hosted by The Society of Ploughmen. Scotland’s representatives are:
Conventional – Ian Williams and Reversible – Neil Ramsay

The Society of Ploughmen is also running a vintage and classic competition alongside the Five Nations at the Thorne and Lindholme Ploughing match / South Yorkshire Charity Ploughing Match.
Scotland’s representatives are:
Vintage Mounted – Harry Ferguson Vintage Trailing – James McPherson
Classic – Charlie McDonald.

Calendar with pictures from Scottish Ploughing Championships 2011

Mowat Print and Design Ltd from Golspie in Sutherland have produced a calendar using photos from the 2011 Ploughing Championships at the request of local ploughers.

These Calendars are available to purchase for £7.00, which includes P&P, by sending a cheque, made payable to “Mowat Print and Design”, with your name and address to:

Mowat Print & Design Ltd
64 Main Street
GOLSPIE
KW10 6TG

Please note that these calendars have been produced by the printing company and are not in any way connected with Ploughing Championships (Scotland) Limited.

World Ploughing Championships – Croatia 2012

Information for the 5 day and 10 days visitors programmes has now been added to the Croatian World Ploughing Championships website at:

http://www.huono.hr

Bookings made after 31st March will be more expensive.