Taylor-made for ploughing
Angela Taylor is one of two women who have qualified for this year's New Zealand Ploughing Championships to be held at Rongotea on April 16 and 17.
The championships are being held at Riversdale, Southland, on April 10 and 11.
"We got a bit of a scare the other day when Auckland got locked down," admits organising committee spokesman Mark Dillon.
"Covid's upset the whole world really. I suppose it's lucky that we can even go ahead."
Last year's event was supposed to be in Hawke's Bay in April, but was postponed and eventually took place at Kirwee, in Canterbury, in late July.
A former national champion, who represented New Zealand in the 2014 World Championships in France, Dillon is a cropping, sheep and beef and grazing farmer and rural contractor.
He is hosting this year's event on his own farm.
He told Rural News entries include 16 conventional, five reversible, nine vintage, and five or six teams of horse drawn ploughs - the latter sponsored by Rural News Group. He expects both Silver Class champion Ian Woolley (Blenheim) and Reversible Champion Malcolm Taylor (Putaruru) to defend their titles.
Meanwhile, it is still unclear whether this year's World Championships, which Woolley and Taylor have qualified for, will be able to go ahead in Ireland in September.
Winners of the Riversdale event will qualify for the Worlds in St Petersburg, Russia.
Dillon will himself be competing in the conventional class, in which he placed third last year.
He is also a keen competitor in Tractorpull competitions, being the chairman of Southern Tractor Pull. Not surprisingly, a Tractorpull event will be run this year alongside the ploughing.
Dillon says the machine he uses in Tractorpull, a vintage Fordson, is currently "in the shed" having a new Ford truck motor fitted.
"It's not long been done up so it should be a better engine than what I had."
He hopes 40 or 50 machines might turn out for the Tractorpull, but that may depend on the weather.
About 20 turned recently out just for a local Tractorpull at the Balfour Backyard Beauties car, motorbike and machinery rally in early March.
Another feature of this year's event will be a demonstration of GPS-controlled ploughing put on by machinery supplier Power Farming.
There will also be craft and food stalls and entry is by gold coin donation.
What, When, Where:
- What: 2021 NZ Ploughing Championships
- Where: 230 Riversdale - Waikaia Road, Southland
- When: April 10 and 11, from 10am each day.
