Plowing ahead with their hobby
By DANIEL PEARCE — QMI Agency
Posted 1 year ago
Something was noticeably absent from this year's plowing match, an annual event held to celebrate the dying art of turning up a field properly.
Horses.
For close to 90 years, Norfolk farmers have gathered every Labour Day weekend for the contest, which attracts a mix of antique tractors and horse-drawn plows.
But this year organizers announced that international plowing match rules would be in force and all horses would be required to have a special blood test ahead of time to make sure they are disease-free -- as a protection for all the horses in the contest.
"They boycotted us," Marie Chambers, a longtime organizer of the Norfolk Plowing Match, said of the roughly half-dozen horse teams that normally enter. "We're complying with the rules because I feel we have to comply with the rules.
"If you ignore the rules, its possible you'll have no insurance coverage."
The 2010 match, held at a rye field outside this hamlet east of Waterford, went ahead Saturday morning with 18 entrants ranging in age from 12 to 80.
They rode a variety of motorized tractors, including a 1948 Oliver Cletac, which looks like a mini-bulldozer. It was designed with tracks, like what's seen on a bulldozer, instead of wheels in order to get through the muck of the Holland Marsh north of Toronto.
Judges examined the furrows of contestants to see who could plow the straightest line at just the right depth, with no grass showing between furrows.
Winners can go on to regional and world matches. The International Plowing Match will be held in St. Thomas Sept. 21-25.
Plowing matches have become more of a nostalgic event over the years thanks to the introduction of no-till planting methods. Instead of turning up a field, farmers essentially drill a hole into the ground to drop in seed.
The number of entrants to the Norfolk event is about one-half what it used to be. Many contestants are hobbyists.
There's an 18-and-under category but it had just one entry this year: Nicholas Arnold, 12, of Fisherville, whose father took up plowing a few years ago as a hobby.
Other contestants were from farm families and were continuing a tradition.
"It's nice to go back to where our agriculture began," said Tenneil Lemery, 34, who grew up on a farm near Waterford and was one of two women entered in the day.
Don Nunnikhoven, 72, came from Cambridge, Ont., to compete and for "the ambience, the socializing, and the meals. I come for the food."
More young people are needed to take up the skill, added Nunnikhoven, who has helped at teaching seminars held to introduce youth to plowing.
The problem, he said, is that young people today are busy with school, travel and jobs.
Bob Riley, 75, of Fisherville, who was there helping the young Nicholas Arnold, warned that it's important not to lose traditional plowing methods.
Farmland, he said, is "getting so hard" without being plowed that "it's getting so you can't do anything with it."