I Ploughed A New Furrow Today

I've never been to a ploughing match before but saw a board in a field advertising this one when we went to collect the TR4 from Barley last week.

It was quite exciting when I approached to see so many tractors working at once. I drove the S2000 gingerly onto the field, it stood out like a sore thumb amongst the 4x4s. I asked a couple of men sitting on the tailgate of one which were the oldest and most interesting tractors. It turned out that one of them was a judge and the other the organiser of the event. They initially thought I was was from the Press. :)

Organiser man offered to take me in his vehicle to see the huge Case which can plough twelve furrows at once. Judge man asked me to take a pic of it for next year's programme. A Mexican student from Cambridge University came with us. Evidently they have ploughing matches in Mexico too but haven't got anything like the Case Quadtrac and its Gregoire plough.

They then took me to see Ellie at work on her classic Nuffield tractor pulling a Kverneland two furrow plough. Ellie is only fifteen and the only woman competitor. Her father says she never used to like to get dirty but has got the tractor driving bug recently. I was speaking to a young woman watching her, who up to now has ploughed with a pair of Clydesdales. She wants to get into tractor ploughing too. You go girls. :)

I really enjoyed my day, I love old agricultural machinery and everyone was so friendly.