Ploughing a new furrow

To introduce competition ploughing to SA at Nampo, Tubestone invited some of the top names in the game to participate in the event – William Hood, chairperson of the World Ploughing Organisation, David Gill, two-time world ploughing champion, Ronald Coulter, world ploughing champion coach, and Scotland’s Andrew Mitchell, who in 2006 became youngest ever world champion. They instructed interested Nampo visitors in what’s expected in the competition.

“Everyone in the team was apprehensive on the first day of the show, wondering what the response would be, but we were soon inundated with potential ploughmen and women. Over the next four days nearly 100 people tried their hand at competition ploughing,” wrote David Gill after the event.

The team that put on the show. From left to right: Rudi du Toit, David Gill, Yolandi Donaldson, Andrew Mitchell, Susan du Toit, Ronald Coulter, Robert Flanagan, Roy Fuller and William Hood.

Clearly SA is ready to stage a national ploughing competition. The next step after the Nampo demo is to hold regional ploughing competition trials in preparation for the first official SA ploughing competition, scheduled to take place at Nampo next year. Currently, the plan is for the winner to attend the 2013 world championship competition in Canada as an observer with a view to the 2014 SA champion competing in the world competition to be held in France in that year.

The challenge now is to secure sponsorships. The team was co-ordinated by Rudi du Toit of Tubestone, assisted by his wife, Susan, and Yolandi Donaldson, Tubestone’s marketing manager. Roy Fuller loaned the ploughs.

Incidentally, the world ploughing contest has been held three times in Africa – twice in Zimbabwe, in 1983 and way back in 1968, and at Njoro, Kenya, in 1995. The 59th World Ploughing Competition will be held this year at Biograd na Moru in Croatia on 14 and 15 September.

Joe Spencer, ably assisted by the expert, David Gill. Photo taken by Yolandi Donaldson

On a personal note, two-time world ploughing champion David Gill even persuaded me to give it a try. He asked if I’d ever ploughed before and I had to confess that it was more than 40 years since I had had a go. “Sure, it’s just like riding a bike, you don’t forget,” he said in his broad Irish brogue, and proceeded to guide me through the routine.

Getting suitable equipment proved to be a challenge
Match ploughing has never been part of the SA agricultural scene, except for the occasional competition among the vintage tractor fraternity, so match ploughs belonging to Roy Fuller, a former world ploughing competitor, were transported from Zimbabwe. Local vintage tractor fanatic Hannes Smit refurbished the ploughs to a very high standard and two John Deere tractors were sponsored by SENWES. The tractors were fitted with hydraulically operated top links and lift rods.

Peru Brand under instruction from Andrew Mitchell.